A good deed gone wrong
by Demino
Summary: In a state of sadness, Amy makes a wish on the Master Emerald. A wish that could doom her, but give another one a chance for happiness. Complete
1. chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles faces something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Advance 3 ending spoiler.

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A good deed gone wrong  
Part I

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The battle was over, Eggman's plan had been foiled, and the world was put back together again. The master Emerald had undone the damage from the sudden shattering of the world. And yet, it didn't feel like a victory, at least not to Amy as she watched Tails and Cream run off towards the plane. Knuckles had simply grunted and walked over to see if any damage had been done to the Emerald shrine.

And Sonic, he had flown off to battle a powered up Gmerl as Super Sonic to prevent the robot from causing any more trouble with the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Eggman had tacked along as his partner, why she wasn't sure, but it must have been to save the world so he could conquer it another day.

Turning her face, she watched Tails and Cream chatting a bit as they prepared the tornado for take off. But she was more sure that Tails were checking it for any damage since it had been her flying it up here in order to watch the last battle.

Sonic had done most of the job of course, but they had all helped him in defeating Eggman this time. Working like a team to recover the chaos emeralds, and battle off the robots Eggman had spread across each part of the shattered world. But even through all of this, she had felt useless, as Sonic had barely looked in her direction the whole time, it was either him with Tails or Knuckles tacking along with the whole time. If she hadn't gotten a hold of the red emerald for them, she was sure he wouldn't even have looked at her.

Feeling more depressed then ever, Amy turned and walked over to find a place to sit down with her thoughts. Dropping down on the stair case leading up to the alter, she ignored the sharp glance form Knuckles as he sat a good distance away from her, lost in his own thoughts until she had gotten close.

Lowering her eyes, she stared at her shadow as it moved a bit in the light given off by the Master Emerald. The light glinting off her hammer as she used it to lean her arms on, a part of her reflection was visible in the metal, and looking back at her, was a depressed looking hedgehog girl.

One that wasn't sure if she would ever catch Sonic, no matter how confident she looked on the outside. She was unsure of how to really pull it off. She could see how scared he was of her, how he backed away whenever she showed her feelings, and the only way she could really convince him to spend time with her, was with a treat of violence.

If only he just see that despite her rough edges, she could help as well. She had convinced Shadow to help them save the world. She had battled off Zero on her own, stood up to Eggman several times, and even risked her life to bring Sonic a chaos emerald doing the chaos incident.

So why did he still refuse to look at her, she was strong, willing to follow him no matter how dangerous it was, and she could defend herself against most treats. So why didn't he want to have anything to do with her at all.

"Maybe, he doesn't want a shadow, but someone to walk with."

Snapping her head up at the voice, She found herself looking right into a pulsing pink light trailing through the air in front of her. "What!?" Falling down from the stairs in shock, she blinked as it moved closer to her.

"Tikal."

The single word breathed out softly from behind her, made her eyes snap up to see Knuckles staring at the pink light with mixed feelings in his eyes, one hand twitching as if it wanted to reach out to touch the light.

"Chaos wants me to thank you all, and tell you that balance has been restored again." Pulsing a bit brighter, the light reformed into a young Echidna girl, light orange dread lock like spines hanging down her side as she smiled at them. "I thank you as well, for ensuring that peace Knuckles." Smiling at him, she slowly faded back into a ball of light, hovering around knuckles and then back around Amy. "Remember Amy, maybe he wants to walk with some, instead of a shadow following him."

Twisting her head as Tikal spoke, she blinked as the pink light darted back into the Master Emerald again; the only trace of her presence the sad look on Knuckles face as he looked at huge green gemstone. "Tikal, but how is she?"

Shooting a small glance, Knuckles turned to walk away, but cast a look over his shoulder after a few steps. "She resides with Chaos inside the Master Emerald." With that said, he walked back to sitting guard again.

Watching him, Amy sighed as she could recognize the look in his eyes. But she wasn't sure if it was love, or the hope and desire to see someone of his own kind. Whatever it was, she felt sorry for him.

Staring at the Echidna, Amy sighed as she stood up. No one deserved to as alone as he was. Sonic didn't want to talk with her, but she still had friends. What did Knuckles have besides the Master Emerald?

Eyes flashing, Amy turned around and faced the Master Emerald. She couldn't change her own sadness right now, but she could give Knuckle an attempt at happiness. Moving silently as not to disturb the half sleeping Echidna, Amy moved up to look directly at the green surface of the large gemstone.

Unsure of how to proceed, Amy looked at the gem as she tried to recall what Sonic and Tails had told her about it. It controlled the Chaos Emeralds, and Tails had said something about this Tikal making a wish to the emerald, a wish that had stopped Chaos from destroying the world in the past.

Maybe, she could free her, if she made the correct wish. It wouldn't hurt to try; after all, nothing was gained by giving up. Clearing her throat as silently as she could, she recalled the precise chain of words that both Tails and Knuckles had used.

"The servers are the 7 chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos." Speaking the sentence, Amy smiled as she placed one hand on the Emerald gently, its glow growing stronger as she did so. "Please, release her, let Knuckles have a chance for happiness!"

Jumping up as soon as he heard the first of the words, Knuckles spun around to see the Pink Hedgehog girl standing in front of the Master Emerald. A strong, determined expression on her face. "Amy, No!!" Rushing forward, he clearly heard the wish she made on the gem, and the world exploded in a powerful green light. "NO!"

TBC.

AN: Well, I'm trying another Sonic story, since no ones seems to care about the other one, I'm putting it on hold while I write this one. And poeple, Review it, or the next chapter won't be put up.


	2. chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles faces something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes spoilers.

/Telepathy/

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A good deed gone wrong  
Part II

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Shielding his eyes from the intense green glow, Knuckles grunted as he noted the light dying down after a few seconds, the still of the air broken by a light gasp as a body fell down. "Amy, what the hell did you think you were...?" His angry words died off as he noted who was sitting on the ground before him. "Tikal?"

The peach colored Echidna girl looked up with a gasp, her blue eyes looking right at him with a confused stare. "You, you're the guardian?" Looking to the sides, she blinked a bit. "How, where am I?"

Completely put off guard, Knuckles could only close his mouth as he moved his gaze to the Master Emerald, the gem glowing as brightly as ever. Tikal was back, the only other one of his kind he had known somewhat, was back.

Only a few seconds later, did something else occur to him as he shook of the daze. "Where is Amy?" And a dark feeling formed in his stomach as he remembered her wish clearly.

Reaching the scene right after that, Tails and Cream panted from a frantic run as they watched Knuckles and the echidna girl, Tails blinking in surprise as her name came back to him. "Tikal, but how?"

Standing up with a small shaking to her legs, Tikal swept a stray quill back and cast a look at the one who asked the last question. "That, is something I would like to know as well."

"Amy." Knuckle muttered the name with a mixture of feelings behind it, his eyes having turned from Tikal to the Master Emerald. "She made a wish on it, and it was granted."

Even more puzzled, Tails scratched his head as he cast his focused from Tikal, to Knuckles and finally to the large green gem. "But, I didn't think the Master Emerald granted wishes."

With a more alarmed expression on her face, Tikal had turned to face the object behind her, a feeling of dread running through her body as she gazed into the interior of the emerald. "She made a wish, with her heart's full power, and the emerald granted it."

Growing concerned at that statement, Cream shyly stepped forward a bit, catching the female echidna's attention. "If the emerald granted Amy's wish, why isn't she here then?" Looking more distressed, Cream's ears began to fall down behind her head in a scared manner. "Did she wish for her to go away?"

Knuckles grunted a bit as he crossed his arms. "Her wish isn't important right now, what happened to her because of it is." Facing Tikal, he slowly sighed as he relaxed a bit as he noticed just how confused she was, as well as scared. "I'm guessing that there was a prize to pay for the wish?"

Shaken out of her own confused state, Tikal turned back to the others, a sad look filling her face. "Yes." Taking a deep breath as she tried to calm down, as well as get her thoughts and emotions back under control. "The master emerald is powerful, but it can't grant a spirit a new body without something to work from."

Looking even more distressed then before, Tails ears dropped down onto his head as he frowned deeply, his mind already figuring out what Tikal was talking about. "You mean, that when Amy wished for you to return..." The statement a good guess on his side, as her return could only mean something like that. "...She gave up her own life in return?"

Shaking her head in a negative way, Tikal lowered her head and closed her eyes. "Balance must be maintained, my spirit resided in the Master Emerald along with my friend Chaos, as my own body was lost years ago."

Knuckles eyes widen in shock, as he too understood what Tikal was saying. "She traded places with you, you became flesh and blood again, and Amy."

"Became a spirit residing inside the Master Emerald." Tails finished as he snapped his head around to face the gem.

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Opening her green eyes slowly, Amy shook of the daze and tiredness she felt. Her body aching like it wasn't used to moving around. "Sonic? Cream, Knuckles, Tails?" Calling out the names of her crush and friends, she blinked as no one answered her.

In fact, the whole world was oddly silent, except for a strange dripping sound nearby.

Pushing herself up, she stared into a brightly blue sky, puffy white clouds moving lazily across it, and all of it above the solid looking stones of the familiar emerald shrine, with nothing out of the ordinary. "Aw, it didn't work!"

Her words echoed through the air for a bit, her eyes filled with annoyance as she turned to leave the shrine, she stopped as she looked back up over her head. "Funny, I didn't think that the stone ceiling was still planted above the Shrine?" Her eyes moving to the side, she stared at seven thin stone pillars reaching high into the air. "And I know those weren't there last I checked."

Around her, several small eyes stared puzzle as the pink hedgehog talked with herself. Then the eyes moved as their owners talked with one another as quietly as they could. Reaching some kind of agreement, the small beings moved out to see who it was that had entered into their area.

Feeling a bit more unsure of where she was with each passing minute, Amy backed away from the Gem and stopped, Her ears twitching as they picked up a familiar sound nearby, something she had hard a lot in the last few years.

Turning around to face the origin of the sounds, she stopped moving as she saw several small blue and white creatures hovering in the air around her, curios looks on their small faces. "You're, chao."

"Chao!" Came the happy response as the being floated closer to her, several of them with a question mark over their heads as they moved around her, trying to poked her in a way to find out more about her. "Chao?" The whole thing stopped with a curious sound from them, the faint sound of dripping water fading away.

Amy blinked again as the small beings moved away from her, an uncertain feeling to them as they hovered about a meter away from her. "What's wrong?" Amy asked as the strange dripping sound filled the air again. And this time, she had clearly heard where the sound came from.

Turning around somewhat hesitantly, she froze as she faced a very familiar transparent creature about her height, a small pink brain floating around inside of its head as two huge green eyes focused on her in a questioning manner. "Chaos!"

The dripping sound filled the air again as Chaos stepped forward at her outburst, one arm lifting up to touch her as he came closer, his eyes narrowing a bit if it was even possible.

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"She's what!"

Holding his ear away from the small radio, Tails wondered if calling Sonic was such a good idea, but he needed to know what had happened. Yet, judging by the outburst, it might not have been the best thing to do at the moment. "I'm not sure, but Knuckles said she made a wish at the Master Emerald, and somehow, it came trough." Listing to the silence on the other end, Tails bit his lib a bit. "Tikal, said that she might."

The two-tailed Kitsune was interrupted as Sonic's voice shouted through the radio again, but in a surprise way instead of an angry one. "Tikal, what about her, is something wrong with the Master Emerald again?"

Turning to see Tikal and Knuckles quietly talking together, Tails shook his head a bit. "No, not really, from what I understand, she's here because of the wish Amy made."

A deep sigh followed that statement, and Tails would later swear he heard something like a head hitting a wall. "Okay, So Amy's gone, and Tikal's free from the Master Emerald."

Taking a deep breath, Tails got ready to hold the radio away from his ear. "Yeah."

The fact that he wasn't holding the radio close, was a good thing as several swear words come out of it less then a second later, drawing in the attention of Knuckles and Tikal who stared confused at the scene. And Cream, she was busy pressing her hands against her ears, several of the words matching those her mother didn't want her to hear, not yet at last.

TBC.

AN: Thanks you all for the many reviews, it made me very happy, and eager to finish this chapter of the story extra fast. Hope you all like the basic plot so far. And remember to review.

Review Response: 

CyberWarriorRose: Thanks for the comment, hope you like this chapter as well.

Eless the hedgecat: Romance? Um, I haven't really considered any couples. But I'll think about it, and see what I can come up with.

Knux girl: Thanks for the nice comment.

Dione Kitane: Thanks for the comments, I'll work on the description bits, and I'm trying to improve my grammer, hope it has gotten better since the last chapter.

Firehedgehog: It's okay, I know what it is like to be busy and in need of more time.


	3. chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

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A good deed gone wrong  
Part III

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Backing off, Amy smiled in a scared way as Chaos continued to advance on her, the Chao having moved back to allowed him to get closer to her, as well as watch what would happen with their ever curios expressions.

Finally backing Amy up as far as she could get, Chaos face bubbled a bit as his formless eyes moved over her, his hand gently touching her cheek to confirm that she was real. Then he stepped back and gave a small roar before reforming into a puddle of water that slid back towards the shrine.

Falling to her knees, Amy gasped as her heart continued to beat loudly in her chest. No matter how gentle he may have looked like when he and Tikal returned to the Master Emerald years ago, he had been frightening that close to her.

Lifting her head as her heart slowed down, she blinked as she spotted Chaos sitting on the shrine steps in front of the Master Emerald. His eyes locked onto a small group of Chao playing at the foot of it.

Standing up and adjusting her dress and headband, she grinned a bit as she watched two mature choa fly by in her waist height, a younger one struggling to keep up as its newly fully grown body tried to fly for the first time.

Then her eyes moved to stare at something else she hadn't noticed before, the huge doors leading from the Shrine area to the path to the Echidna's ancient city. "Did I travel through time?" Her question hanging in the air for a bit as she stepped forward with a curious expression, the last time, she had gone through the door and seen the city briefly, full of Echidna's and with the huge pyramid rising above it all.

Then she had been drawn back to the shrine by a feeling, that she wasn't supposed to enter the city, but rather observe something at the shrine instead.

"Amy?"

Gasping loudly as the voice echoed through the air, the Pink hedgehog spun around to see if she could find the source of the voice, failing to anything but the Shrine, Chaos and a curios chao sitting on the ground.

"Amy... you... me?"

Trembling a bit as the ghostly voice continued to talk, Amy backed off and began to run for the huge doorway, passing over the bridge with river below it. "Sonic!" Reaching the door, she pushed it as hard as she could, panting, as it didn't even more a single centimeter. "No."

Then the feeling of dread faded away as she felt someone touch her shoulder gently, a full attack of fear spreading through her until she saw the Chao smile at her, as well as the feeling of comfort coming from the hand on her shoulder.

Forcing her heart to calm down, she planted her own hand on the one touching her, smiling as she turned around to thank whomever it was for calming her down. "Chaos?" Her mouth opening in surprise as the huge green eyes stared into hers.

The water monster stared at her, a bit less treating then before. Then it began to with drew again, a small group of Chao following him the whole time.

At the doorway, Amy dropped to her knees and leaned back against the surface of the door. "Where am I?" The question echoing around her silently as she cast a confused and slightly frighten look at the shrine before her.

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Outside in the real world, Tikal panted a bit as she removed her hands from the surface of the Master Emerald, her eyes half closed as she nearly fell down to her knees.

Having seen her break of her concentration, Knuckles gently grabbed her shoulder and arm, holding her steady until she looked well enough to do it on her won. "You should be careful Tikal." He mumbled out as his arms pulled back from her.

Shaking her head in a negative way, Tikal smiled a bit as she cast a warm smile on the guardian echidna. "It okay, I was just not ready to try and mind link with someone as a living being." Faltering her smile a bit, she closed her eyes as she remembered how hard it had been to share her memories with them, even as a spirit.

"Still." Knuckles started as his head turned slightly to the side, facing Tails talking with a concerned Cream over by the Tornado. "You shouldn't overdo it, you've just been revived, and." He trailed off as a light blush formed under his red fur. "You should just take it easy, for a day or two."

Blushing herself as she caught the note of concern in his voice, Tikal stepped back and settled in on the shrine steps, her face tilting back to face the early evening sky. "Thank you, I will." Voice a bit low, she smiled as she caught the guardian looking surprised, and then blushing as he moved back to watch the Master Emerald again.

As soon as he was gone, she looked back down and focused on the grass surrounding the shrine. She hadn't told him, but, her mind link had worked well enough to pick up some concerned feelings from both Chaos and Amy, the pink hedgehog showing the most of it as she had been too scared to link with, where as Chaos had been willing to calm down a bit, when he felt her presence again. "Please, be careful, I promise to find a way to undo this."

Lifting a hand as she spoke, her eyes closed and allowed a small tear to run down the side of her head. It was strange to be alive, and able to talk with the current guardian, he was, different from her tripe, she saw the same temper and battle spirit in him as in her people, but he also, understood that not everything could be solved with his fists or through violence.

But below that battle spirit, she sensed something else, a person who felt resigned to his duty, that it was his only reason to live. Forever bound to guard the home of her spirit, never knowing his people's ways, or friendship. A smile broke through at that thought. He did have friendship, even if he didn't see it, Amy, Sonic, Tails and even Cream were his friends.

Looking back at the red Echidna, Tikal blushed a bit as she smiled. If he had been alive back in her time, she wouldn't have minded being his friend.

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A cold wind whipped through his fur as white clouds sailed past him lazily in all directions. An intense scowl on the pilots face as he directed the plane towards the looming mass of land in the distance. "That stupid Amy, can't she stay out of trouble for just one minute."

And despite of his scowl, the blue hedgehog sighed as he once again checked the instrument panel before tilting the plane slightly back to take it up some more.

It wasn't that she was too much of a problem; it was just her way of acting, always following him around, getting him distracted or herself taken as a hostage. Couldn't she just understand that he would feel much better if she stayed out of the danger zone?

Checking his instruments yet again, he eyes narrowed as he slammed a fist onto them. Teeth gritting against each other as he leaned back. Hopefully, the problem would be an easy one to solve, as the whole battle with Gmerl just hours ago had left him a bit drained.

Breaking through a cloud, he felt like cheering as he could see the majestic sight of the flying island below him, the fiery volcano and the ice and snow covered mountain peaks with the vast jungle and desert zones surrounding them. And right there, near the left side of the Mountains, was a small bit of land separated from the rest of the island, a faint green sparkle flashing brightly, as he got closer to it.

Flying down towards the ground, the blue hedgehog narrowed his eye sin concentration, as he knew there wasn't really any place to land nearby the shrine, the closest being the bit of land next to the shrine's connecting bridge.

Below the place, four heads lifted up to stare at the gray and blue plane as it safely landed on the ground. A relived expression on several of them as they moved over to talk with the hedgehog, and explain things to him.

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Grinning seductively as she set her feet on the edge of Angle Island, jewel thief and part time government agent, Rouge the Bat faced the direction of the Emerald shrine. It was time to secure the Master Emerald for her collection, instead of letting it go to waste in this place.

Maybe she would even get to tangle a bit with its guardian in the process, though she wasn't counting on it, it would be too costly time and strength wise, besides, he wouldn't let her keep it anyway. It would be better for all if she just took it, and sent him a thank you note, six or seven years from now.

And unlike the last few attempts she had made in the past, she had a surefire way to get the emerald this time around. One that would leave the Echidna speechless, so, all she really had to decide on now, was where she wanted to place it.

TBC.

An: I originally wanted Eggman to steal the Master Emerald, can't make it too easy for the heroes and heroines to save Amy could I. So Tikal will get a chance to meet the Treasure Hunter that Knuckles is always weary off in person.

Review Response

Desane: Thanks for the kind words, I'm a bit surprised as well, as in my other Sonic stories I seem to make everyone act oot of character.

Firehedgehog: Ouch, hope you've gotten better since you reviewed, and that you will get some more free time. Thanks for the comment as well.

CyberWarriorRose: Knuxamy huh? I'll think about it, as I am a bit unsure of howI could the two to like each other. I haven't even seen them talk with one another in the games, but one scene in Sonic Heroes gave me the eimpression that the Echidna does know of her, and her feelings, and don't like the way Sonic keeps on avoiding her.


	4. chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to, warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

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A good deed gone wrong  
Part IV  
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Late evening began to fall as Sonic stood before the Master Emerald, his eyes going over every finely cut surface of the huge gem. "So, she's in there?"

Nodding at first as he had his mouth full of heated fish. Tails returned his attention to Sonic as he swallowed the bit in his mouth. "We've tried to contact her earlier, but it failed." Taking another bite of his fish, he chewed it slowly and swallowed.

Scratching his head, Sonic groaned and turned to move back to the to the rest of the group, eyes moving over the group with a tired expression. Cream was sleeping on the ground next to cheese; the Chao giving a soft snoring sound as he snuggled up to his owner

And the peach colored Echidna who was part of the current trouble, she was sitting at the fire solemnly, staring at the other Echidna in the small camp. Following her gaze, he spotted Knuckles standing guard at the shrine as usual, arms crossed and a fierce look on his face.

Sitting down at the fire, Sonic grinned as Tikal gave a quick glance at him, then he snagged one of Tails fish, much to the protesting sound from the fox who had plopped down next to him. "So, how do you feel about being alive again Tikal."

Looking over with a startled expression on her face, Tikal blinked as she went over the rather blunt question from the hedgehog. "I, I'm not sure how I should feel."

Raising an eye slightly, Sonic leaned back and grinned a bit as he held up his fish. "Because of Amy right, well, I wouldn't think of it as something bad, more of like a vacation." Seeing her confused expression, he dropped down onto his back with a simple content sigh, a bit of fish in his mouth as he spoke again. "You get to spend some time out of the green stone, talk with us again, and before you know it, we'll have found a way to get both Amy out of that rock, without having to send you back into it."

Smiling a bit at his statement, Tikal frowned as she looked back at Knuckles. Despite the words of the Blue hedgehog, she knew it wouldn't be that easy to solve this problem. She had taken Amy's place as a living being and Amy was now a spirit trapped inside the Master Emerald, how could one change that to having the two of alive again, without something providing the life-force needed to recreate her body.

To get Amy back out, she would have to trade places with her again, or someone else would have to give up their life in order to free her. "I'm going to try and contact her again."

Opening an eye as he pulled out the remains of his fish, Sonic cast a look over at Tikal as she walked away, a small smile on his face as he leaned up to follow her a bit more. "Take care, and be careful that Knuckles don't bite you for messing with his precious stone."

Laughing a bit, the blue hedgehog suddenly yelped as a fist smacked him on the head, the blow enough to send him down to the ground. "Hey, what's the big idea?" Opening his eyes, he spotted Knuckles looking down at him with a ticked off expression as his fist loomed in the air. "What, are you mad that I insulted your hunk of green crystal again?"

Looking a bit more ticked off, Knuckles grabbed the slightly burnt fish from Sonic's grasp. "No, I'm stopping you from taking what's my share of the food." Stopping just before he taking a bite, he looked over at the blue hedgehog. "And stop insulting the Master Emerald Sonic, can't you take this matter more seriously, Amy's trapped inside of it for crying out loud."

Plopping himself up on shi elbow, Sonic grinned a bit as he rubbed a finger under his nose as he cast a half caring look at the red echidna. "Don't know if I want too Knuckles, after all, if I worry about things too much, I'll end up just a grouchy as you are."

"Who are you calling Grouchy!?" Knuckles yelled back as his left hand crushed his fish into a fine mess. "Maybe if you stopped leading her on all the time, she wouldn't have done something like that?!"

Fully up on his side, Sonic gave Knuckles as a scratching look as he cast the same kind of annoyed look at him. "So tell me Knuckles, how did I get her to wish for Tikal to come back, hmm?"

Tossing the smattered fish away with a disgusted look, Knuckles snapped back around to face Sonic again, not caring that fish landed on Tails head. "You don't see it do you, how your constant brush off hurts her, if she hadn't been so depressed, she might not have made the wish to begin with."

Looking just as ticked off, Sonic smacked his face real up close to Knuckles. "I don't want her to follow me, and it can't hardly be my fault she won't listen when I tell her that."

Glaring right back and pushing his forehead against Sonic's, Knuckles lifted up a fisted hand. "Bah, you never even gave her kind word did you, always acting like she's going to hurt you!"

Holding up his own hand as well, Sonic's eyes narrowed as he spat out a reply. "Have you seen that hammer of hers?"

Lifting his other hand, the red colored Echidna pushed forward slightly with his forehead. "Yes, I was the one who found the red chaos emerald along with her, or have you forgotten that!?" Knuckles roared.

Pushing back with his forehead, Sonic glared down at Knuckles, as it was the red echidna's turn to be pushed back. "You like her that much, you take her!"

Pushing forward harshly, Knuckles eyes narrowed t slits as he felt raw anger form at the way dismissing Sonic had spoken about Amy. "Why you, don't talk about her like that."

Jumping forward and knocking the echidna over, Sonic growled as his nerves snapped, and a whole day's worth of worry came rushing out in one angry outburst. "Shut up Knuckles, all you have to worry about it that rock of yours. Not some rapid fan girl constantly getting in the way or being kidnapped."

Up on the shrine, Tikal removed her hand from the Master Emerald. Her eyes moving to stare in the direction of the shouts she had heard. Her eyes widening as she spotted Sonic and Knuckles rolling around like two kids while trying to hit the other one. "Stop, both of you. Don't fight please."

Rushing towards, she stopped as she got close enough to try and stop them, Tails doing the same as he grabbed Sonic's shoulder, Tikal holding onto Knuckles as well as she could. "Please, stop."

Pulling himself free of Tails, Sonic turned to the side and snorted a bit. "It's all Knuckles fault, if he hadn't gone and acted like a jerk I'd." Trailing off his rant, Sonic looked away as he noticed Tikal's pleading look. "Okay, I'll stop fighting, if Knuckles stop bugging me about Amy."

Turning her look onto Knuckles, she saw him nod as he walked back to the master emerald again. "Wait Knuckles." Calling out, she grabbed his arm and held it for a few seconds, letting go as she noticed him looking at it; she blushed a bit as she watched his purple eyes move up to her face questioningly. "Can I, talk with you for a minute?"

Seeing the peach colored Echidna blush a bit at how her question had sound, Knuckles ignored the smirk Sonic sent him, as he did want to talk with her again, but hadn't know how to get around to doing it. "Okay."

Smiling in gratitude, Tikal slowly walked over to the sit at the other side of the fire, Knuckles sitting down next to her, but with a bit of distance, as he still wasn't sure how to act around her.

-----------------------------

Night had fallen over the small world inside the Master Emerald, the fact making Amy shiver a bit as she still sat on the ground, her knees drawn up closer to her, and head tucked down to avoid looking at anything as she wondered how things had turned out this badly..

Holding back a sob, she closed her eyes more tightly as her back pressed up against the great doors. She was scared and alone, she wanted her Sonic to show up and comfort her, she wanted Tails to talk in that techno babble he always did, she would even settled for the tense silence around Knuckles.

Just so she wouldn't be here, alone with a water monster and a bunch of Chao. She was cold, tired, but strangely not hungry. Come to think of it, had she even needed to drink anything, eat or even rest since she came here? Lifting her head, she noticed the faint glow from the master emerald, the green light filling the air with a calm feeling to it.

And standing in front of it, she noticed the transparent figure of Chaos looking back at her, then it turned and slid down the stairs as a puddle, reforming at the bottom of the shrine, still staring at her with the same look as before.

Standing up from her sitting position, Amy slowly walked forward, careful not to wake the Chao or upset the water monster anymore.

Finally, after what seemed like hours to her, she stood almost with in range of the water beast, her eyes moving from side to side as her pulse increased a bit. "Um, I'm Amy, nice to meet you." Smiling a bit at him when she finished introducing herself.

The sound of water drop hitting a body of water sounded trough the air as Chaos's body rippled a bit, his eyes moving to look right into her own. /Know you, saw you with blue hedgehog and Chao./ stepping forward enough to tower over her a bit, the green, formless eyes lowered to still stare at her. /Where friend Tikal at?/

Opening her mouth as the same calm voice rang through her head, followed by the water sound as before, the pink hedgehog opened her mouth and voiced out the surprise going through her. "You can talk?"

At that moment, a sudden shock went through the area, sending her back to land on her behind roughly, if it wasn't for the two liquid like arms grabbing her gently, puling her back up as an angry roar came from Chaos, the Chao screaming in surprise and scattering in all directions.

Ignoring the fact that a water monster was holding her, Amy cast a scared look up at him. "What's going on?" Looking to the former enemy of Sonic's for an answer.

-----------------------------

Forced out of his sleep by a sudden and intense shaking, Knuckles sprung up from his resting place, startling Tikal and Cream who both moved back a bit in shock at his quick motion. "The Master Emerald!" Alerting Sonic, Tails, Cream and Tikal to the origin of the shaking, as he took of running in its direction.

Turning their heads to follow him, the two females and males spotted the strangest sight they had yet seen. A giant white balloon with a masked bat's head on the side was hovering in the air, the giant green gem attached to it with a series of cables.

And sitting on the very top of the gem stone, looking as arrogant as ever, a white female bat pulled one more on the jet flame release cord, sending another jet of hot air into the balloon, lifting her and the precious cargo up into the night sky.

Noticing that they had spotted her, Rouge gently waved her free hand and smiled at them. "Hey Knuckles, just thought I'd take this baby to a place where it can be really cared for." Patting the stone surface, she grinned more to herself then to the group below her. "And don't worry, I'll take real good care of it."

Looking up with pure anger in his eyes, Knuckles faced the Maser Emerald and it's captor, the batgirl blowing him a kiss as her balloon gently moved away from him. "Rouge!!" Rushing forward, he was force to drop to his knees as another tremor went through the island. "No!"

Then he felt his body grow light as a feather, wind rushing past him as he dug his hands into the earth for support. Angel Island were falling again, and all because he had once again failed in his duty as Guardian,

TBC.

AN: Angel Island falling is an old idea that is widely used by many people in fanfics, and while I'm going with that, I'm not going to let the Master Emerald get shattered as it has been used to many times in my opinion. Feel free to add a comment about the story so far, I love feedback, it makes me happy and helps removed the problems.

Also about the balloon description, bare over with me, I don't know the first thing about them, only what they look like and that they need hot air to fly.


	5. chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes and Advance 3 spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

------------------------------------------  
A good deed gone wrong  
Part V  
------------------------------------------

Location: Unknown

Time: Unknown.

Eggman, the greatest genius super villain currently alive slammed a hand down onto his command chair. For more then a day he had sulked over the recent set back in his world conquest plans because of that blue hedgehog.

It had been such a good plan too, ripping the world apart into seven parts for a more easy conquest. And it would have worked, the humans and furries were shocked, unable to defend themselves, and then that blue rodent showed up and messed up everything.

Gmerl had turned traitor on him after getting exposed to the seven chaos emeralds at once, most likely the reused parts of the Gizoid he had salvaged played a part in this. Still, even if he had lost this time, there was always a backup plan. Now if only he could figure out which one to use, it would be even better.

Entering a command onto his Eggman network, he watched as several logs scrolled over the screen, each one a recount of how he had lost to the hedgehog, from the many Death Egg's, to the Time Stone's attempt and everything else.

While the most successful to date, the Metal-Sonic project had been put on hold indefinitely. Having that blue robot turn on him and take away his Egg-pawn army, and Egg-fleet had been one to many wrong doings on that copy's behalf that he would ever tolerate.

Silver-Sonic maybe?

Quickly pushing past that log, the egg obsessed scientist growled. That thing didn't even deserved to be in his logs, after such a great failure it had been. Didn't even last two minutes against the blue menace, his first version of the Eggman mecha had lasted longer then it in battle.

Still brooding after five more minutes of going through his past plans, Eggman sat up as a loud annoying beeping filled the room to a flashing red light. "Ah, my Egg spies picked up something." Moving his fingers across the controls, he grinned as a static filled image formed.

Smirking as he watched the fall of Angel Island and Rouge's theft of the master emerald play out, he began to chuckle lowly. "Ah, such a wonderful turn of events, yes, I can use this." Standing up, he smiled as several more commands brought up one of the lesser plans he had written off as worthless. "Most interesting, while I don't have any use for that gem right now, this is an opportunity I can't ignore."

Laughing in his usual way, Eggman turned to face the stasis pods lining the back wall of his command room. "And I also have the perfect pawn to help me with this plot as well." Pushing a button on the side of the pod, he watched as life returned to the robots eyes, the metal body gently lowering to the ground as the glass shielding slid open.

Facing its creator, green eyes flashed in reorganization as it stepped fully out of the pod, metallic feet clanging loudly as they hit the floor. "Awaiting instructions, doctor."

Smirking as at the words form his creation, Eggman stepped out of the way and revealed the image of Rouge's balloon carrying the Master Emerald. "Good, I want you to get the Master Emerald for me, and if Rouge or any of her allies gets in your way, destroy them."

-----------------------------

Floating gently above the ocean, Rouge's balloon stood out clearly as the sun began to rise in the distance. Waking the jewel-loving girl who had begun to question certain parts of her plan, as one thing had become clear to her. It hurt sitting on the huge gem for hour after hour.

The thought that she should have packed a pillow as well came to mind after only half an hour. Not to mention it was rather cold up here, and Station Square was still only a small dot on the horizon. "Should have brought something to help this thing fly faster."

Standing up as she spoke, Rouge stretched her slightly aching legs out and took a small walk on the gem, facing the direction of where she had come from with a thoughtful look.

She had done it at last; the biggest gem in the world was hers, and hers alone. All she had to do was keep it from the echidna, and his friends, and she's know forever after as the biggest jewel thief ever. Even if she cut it up, there'd be enough to have her set for life.

Tapping her foot on the green glowing surface, she blinked as the gem glowed a bit brighter then before, dulling down again as she focused on it some more. "Now what?" She was sure she had seen it, but her thoughts turned away as something more important came up.

Station Square was finally starting to look like a city rather then a small dot on the horizon. And there, coming closer to her was the special escort she'd sent for. "Almost home now baby, soon you will get the joy of meeting my other precious gems."

As if in a response, the gem's glow dulled a bit as the surface gave a faint rippling effect. The same effect one would see in a pond getting hit by a drop of water.

Looking a bit worried, Rouge stood up again. While she had seen the master emerald more then once, never had it done that before, at least not when she had been near it.

-----------------------------

Backing up as Chaos moved again, Amy watched as the water monster continued to look around with a more urgent feel to him then before. "Ah, is something wrong?" The question sounding both strange and stupid to her as soon as she finished asking it, of course something wasw rong, why else would the world have shook like that.

Refocusing on her, Chaos whole body rippled as he slowly turned back into a puddle, a puddle that was moving rapidly towards the Master Emerald. /Master Emerald, tamper, unknown person./ Reaching the large gem, the puddle that made up Chaos's body spread out over the surface of it. /Guardian not like unknown person, friend Tikal still missing./

Witha rather confused expression on her face, Amy slowly walked up to get a closer look at what the water monster was doing, while still keeping a bit of a distance just in case he decided to go on rampage again.

Looking into the emerald, as she got closer, she stopped as she saw a rather strange image of the outside world, with a very familiar batgirl in the middle of it. "Rouge." The name left a bad taste in her mouth as the Bat girl seemed to talk to something, that stealing bat always treated her and Cream like a bunch of little children, hadn't she faced Eggman more times then her. "What's she doing in there?"

Chaos's body moved around at her question and reformed a bit to face her. /Master Emerald moving, she do it somehow, can't see guardian or friend Tikal./ Silence followed a bit as Chaos returned to watch the image inside the Master Emerald.

Retuning her attention the image of Rouge, Amy slowly felt her anger fade away as a question formed in her head. "If she's stolen the Master Emerald, how will I get back out to my Sonic?" And with that simple question, her world crashed as she dropped to her knees.

-----------------------------

Waves gently crashed onto the sandy shores of Angel Island, something which had only happened a few times in all of Knuckles life, a sad but painful reminder of every time he had failed as guardian. And this time, it had been in front of the one who had led to the creation of the duty in the first place.

Bowing his head, Knuckles sighed as he studied the sand beneath his feet. "I've failed, again." Turning his head to face the peach colored female echidna next to him, he shook his head. "I'm sorry, I seem to be failing every time I have to live up to my duty as the guardian of this place."

Planting a hand on his shoulder, Tikal shook her head negatively. "No one can be ready to fight all the time, you were tired from the current events, and who knew that bat girl would try a sneak attempt." Trying to pull the red echidna out of his depressed state, she looked over at Tails, Sonic and Cream for help in the matter.

Shrugging in reply, Sonic focused on the ocean as well, a small grin forming on his face as he grabbed Knuckles other shoulder. "Hey, it doesn't matter if she stole it or not, just as long as we get it back right?"

Looking at him, Knuckles grinned a bit as well, a small amount of the depression leaving him. "Right, but we still face the problem of getting Amy out the emerald." Turning to face Tikal, he smiled a bit gently. "And if we can do it without having you return to it."

Smiling a bit at his words, Tikal slowly shook her head. "You don't understand, Amy's taken my place as a spirit inside the gem, unless we find something with enough life force power to replace hers, it won't work."

Turing around, Sonic focused on Tails and Cream with a new light of determination in his eyes. "I'll leave that up to you buddy, if anyone can figure out how to solve that, it's you." Smiling at the two tailed fox, the blue hedgehog turned back to face the horizon. "Now, let's get out there and get back the Master Emerald, so we can save Amy, again." The last added a bit later as Sonic shook his head.

TBC.

AN: Yeah, Eggman shows up as well, can't have a Sonic story without him in it. Still several chapters to go, but I'm getting closer to the more action filled parts. Still not decided on any couples, but I'm starting to lean towards a Knuckles/Tikal while Amy is still slightly undecided.


	6. chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes and Advance 3 spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

  
-----------------------------  
A good deed gone wrong  
Part VI  
-----------------------------  


"What do you think Omega, too obvious?" Rouge asked as she watched the newly planed Master Emerald in her nightclub. The large gem acting as a decoration in a mock copy of the Echidna's emerald shrine.

Humming a bit, the large robot scanned the construction and emerald, running the data through his central parts and trying to form an answer to it. "Insufficient data. Need more to make accurate answer."

Snorting at Omega's words, Shadow looked up from his corner, his normally dark and brooding attitude extra strong that day for reasons he couldn't explain. "That thing only going to get you into trouble." But that wouldn't stop him from making a comment on the bats desire to steal the biggest gem in the world. "You know he'll come right to this place for it."

Looking at him a bit, Rouge slowly nodded as she ran a hand across the surface of the gem. "You may be right, he did see me leave with it." Smirking a bit, she turned to regard the black and red hedgehog. "Guess I'll have to hide it someplace else then."

Still facing the gem, Shadow slowly turned his head at the tone Rouge used. "I'm not moving it, you stole it so you deal with it." Waving his hand, he turned to leave the room when he felt the batgirl grab his shoulder. "Rouge?"

Smiling as sweetly as she could, the white colored bat leaned closer to him and grinned a bit as one finger rubbed one of his quills playfully. "You don't have to move it Shadow, all I want from you, is a tiny bit of help in delaying the echidna and hedgehog in coming here."

Raising his left eye a bit, Shadow looked slightly downwards at the Batgirl smiling back up at him. "What kind of help?"

-----------------------------

Spread out before them as they arrived, Station Square and its tall office buildings dwarfed the five furriers as they walked out from the local train Station. Sonic looking a bit tired as he scratched one of his quills and hid a yawn at the same time.

"Sonic, pay attention." Knuckles grunted out as he cast a quick look around the area. "Okay, first we find the Master Emerald, get it back, and then we return to."

Yawning loudly, Sonic cast an annoyed look over at Knuckles. "Okay Knuckles, we get it. But really, don't you think we can get a bit of rest?" Keeping his eyes straight the red echidna as he spoke, Sonic also cast a meaningful gaze at Tails, Cream and Cheese who looked ready to fall down and sleep where they stood. "None of us have gotten much sleep lately you know."

Shooting one of his infamous glares at Sonic, Knuckles took a step forward as he shifted most of his attention to his emerald tracking skill. "I can't waste any more time Sonic, I'm the guardian of the Master Emerald, and I won't rest until I have it back."

"What about Tikal then, shouldn't she get a chance to rest?" Sonic replied as he pointed at the peach colored echidna girl trying to hide a light yawn behind one of her hands. "Face it buddy, we could all use a rest, we've just finished beating Eggman yesterday, and have only gotten about two hours of sleep since then."

Grumbling soundly as he watched the group, Knuckles finally sighed as he gave in. "Fine, but as soon as I'm rested, I'm going hunting for that thief."

Shrugging, Sonic grinned at the guardian echidna. "I wouldn't expect anything less from you." Then he turned a bit more serious as he looked at the city around them. "Anyone got an idea where we can stay? The hotel's out of the question, I overstayed my hero's free accommodations months ago."

"Well." Tails started as he looked a bit nervously at Sonic. "There is Amy's apartment? Cream has a key to it."

Giving him the infamous 'you have got to be kidding look', Sonic shook his head very negatively. "Forget it, no way am I setting a foot inside that place, I'd rather sleep in the junk yard." Seeing the look Knuckles was giving him, he crossed his arms. "I say we forget resting after all, lets try and find Rouge club, then we can get the emerald back to safety, and a bed to sleep in. What do you say Knuckles?"

Facing Sonic with a very tired expression, Knuckles simply reach out and grabbed Sonic's shoulder, pulling him along the ground behind him as the blue hedgehog protested loudly. "Which way Tails?"

Pointing a finger in the right way, Tails tried to ignore the sight of Knuckles practically dragging Sonic after him, a sight that was drawing in the attention from everyone around. Finally, he walked off as well, but casting a quick look around as if expecting someone else to be there as well.

Overlooking it all from his hiding spot, Shadow smirked a bit. Clearly he didn't have to waste his time delaying them, as Rouge had wanted him to. Which was good, while fighting the faker was fun; it wasn't something he wanted to do right now. He had a far more important thing to do.

Jumping down from the ledge, he activated his jet skates and took off towards Night Babylon, and Rouge's nightclub. She would have the time she needed to move that green hunk of rock moved somewhere else, and he could get back to figuring out how to get G.U.N. of his back, they were starting a bit to obsessive in their hunt for him lately.

Still, something about the group troubled him now that he thought about it. Just where was that pink hedgehog girl that kept on following after the faker, if the whole group was together, shouldn't she have been there as well?

Shaking that non-important thought out of his head, he angled of towards Emerald Beach. Maybe some time in a nice quiet place would bring some answers to his other questions.

-----------------------------

Looking up as a small rumble like sound went through her nightclub once more, Rouge narrowed her eyes and slowly turned away from the van she had borrowed to transport the Master Emerald in. "Omega, did you hear something?"

E123 Omega, Eggman, last E100 model machine unit turned his robotic head and upper body around to face her, his red sensors facing her directly on. "Affirmative, scanning area for source of sound." Stepping away from the van as well, he stood up in his full height, weapon systems activating smoothly. "Have picked several energy readings nearby, consistent with reading from Eggman robots."

Eyes widening a bit, Rouge cast a quick look around the room; her body tensing up as both her agent and thieving skills urged her to be ready for anything. "You sure, I can't hear anything anymore." But, as she thought, there might be a very bad reason that the sound had stopped.

Stepping forward in the direction of Rouge to protect her, Omega focused his complete attention on the south wall of the place. "Picking up increasing energy readings from southern direction."

Even before he had finished talking, a larger part of the south wall vanished in a large explosion, rubble flying through the room causing extra damage to the place.

Coughing a bit from the dust in the air, Rouge stared at the hole with a dark glare. Eggman would pay for destroying her nightclub, then her heart almost stopped beating as she spotted a shape moving through the dust cloud, a shape she could recognize anytime. "Omega, You okay?"

Coming out of the cloud, the large E100 model machine eyes moved down to face her, his weapons armed and ready to lock on to anything that show up to attack them. "No damage sustained doing explosion." Moving his sensor eyes from side to side, they gave the impression of narrowing a bit like normal eyes. "Presence of several Eggman robots picked up, suggest caution."

At the final words from Omega, a clear sound of metal feet striking floor could clearly be heard as another shape began to move out of the dust cloud, several shapes in fact.

Turning to face them, Rouge slipped into a battle position as she recognized most of the shapes on the spot, all but one of them. "Egg-pawns, really, doesn't Eggman think we're serious enough to send something better?"

"He does." Came a cold syntizied voice from the last un-identified shape, the dust settled enough for it to become clear at last. Red colored metal dreads with razor edges hanging down from its head, green irises in the center of grid like eyes glowing dangerously.

Stepping back in surprise, Rouge noted that the robot arms ended in two vicious looking daggers, and two powerful looking robotic legs far more stronger looking then those Metal-Sonic had. "What is that thing, it looks like Knuckles." Rouge spat out as she turned slightly to face the Egg-pawns moving to surround them.

Next to her, Omega had moved his weapons to lock onto the robot instead of the Egg-pawns. "Scans confirm it as an upgraded version of robot model copy MK-III, Metal-Knuckles." Eyes sensors narrowing a bit, the huge E100 model machine stepped forward to close the distance between him and the metallic copy of Knuckles. "Preparing to terminate all Eggman robots."

Lifting up his metal arms in front of him, Metal-Knuckles gave a cold laugh as two small jet engines kicked in and allowed him to hover just above the floor. "You may try, but my order is to destroy anyone who stands in the way of my target, the Master Emerald."

Firing his machine guns, Omega sensors went into high speed as the tracked the other robot bounding from wall to wall, its speed getting enhanced by the jet engines, propelling him to a high enough speed to avoid most of the bigger robots attacks, but not able to even dream of matching Metal-Sonic's speed.

Switching form machineguns to a more powerful weapon, Omega fired off a set of mini missiles from his built in armory and took a grim satisfaction in seeing the Metal copy of Knuckles get knocked back. "I am the most superior Eggman robot, I will win this."

Eyes blazing, Metal-Knuckles would have smirked as the Egg-pawns moved in to attack as well. "Battle mode re-activated, level 7." Shooting forward, the red colored robot smashed both twin dagger like hands right into Omega's body, sparks flying freely as the battle resumed. "You are outdated, and will be destroyed."

Grimacing as she took out another Egg-Pawn, Rouge looked around the room, wishing that she hadn't sent Shadow off to delay Knuckles and his friends. His speed and strength could really be used right about now.

Punching Omega into the air, Metal-Knuckles followed up with a sharp kick that sent the huge robot flying backwards through a wall, and into a small Chao garden on the other side with a large bang. Even as he landed from the kick, he lifted up both arms, dagger like hands gleaming in the dim light. "Time to finish this."

That was when a large roar echoed through the room, with a flash of green light accompanying it. Spinning around to face this new possible treat, Metal-Knuckles sensors locked onto a large, transparent creature made of water, it's feet planted on the top off the master emerald.

Finishing with the last Egg-Pawn near her, Rouge gulped as she had time to see what had caused the metallic Knuckles to stop fighting. Her eyes growing a bit small as the water monster faced her as well.

She had never expected to face the water monster known as Chaos, never. His name had been mentioned to her on the secret files G.U.N. had given her on Eggman, but given that that plan had failed, she had never expected that thing to show up again.

Her attention fully on the water monster, she never even noticed the second round of egg-pawns moving in to attack her, until the first blow fell, followed by a second and third one.

TBC.

AN: Metal-Knuckles has a personality. I decided to give him since I don't like writing about robots that is only able to yell out. "Kill, kill and destroy." Also, there's a lack of Amy in this chapter, in fact she wasn't even here. I'll make up for that in the next one.


	7. chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes and Advance 3 spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

-----------------------------  
A good deed gone wrong  
Part VII  
----------------------------- 

"What is he doing?" Amy wondered out loud as she watched Chaos cover the entire Master Emerald with his body, a faint feeling of anger in the air as he continued to watch events outside the small world inside the huge gem.

Amy on the other hand had simply dropped down to sit solemnly in the middle of the grassy area. Several Chao sitting around her with a curious expression, a single one having gotten the courage to cuddle up to her. "Honestly, if Rouge's stolen the Master Emerald, Knuckles won't rest until he has gotten it back, so why's he acting like that, and when he does, things will calm down again."

Sighing a bit at that, she looked up at the sky above her. "But then what, I'm still trapped here, and who knows if I can even come back to my Sonic again?" Tapping a finger against the ground, she grinned a bit and smiled more confidently to herself. "Of course they'll find a way, I'm sure of it."

Returning to petting the Chao cuddling up to her, she briefly wondered just what her Sonic was doing at the moment, and if he was even concerned over her disappearance.

Around her, the Chao seemed to notice their new friends distress, a silent agreement among as they moved in closer to the pink hedgehog, giving her as much comfort as they could.

Giggling as she felt them hug her, Amy looked down and smiled at the chao as they crawled up on her lap, and shoulders, one even settling down on her head. "Thank you."

Happily chirping a reply at her in their strange langue, the Chao continued to comfort her as they began to hum a song to her, the strange notes of it making her relax a bit easier.

--------------------

The bed was too small, the pillow to soft, the whole place smelled like, well nothing like he was used too. The entire things tank in his opinion, and as such, the blue hedgehog known as Sonic grumbled as one more things became clear to him. Both Tails and Knuckles snored, and since the space in Amy's apartment wasn't that big, he was forced to catch some rest far to close to them for his liking. "Shut up!"

The hedgehog tossing his pillow at Knuckles, whom simply grunted in response and turned over, successfully stealing the blanket completely from him in the process. As such, Sonic was left to stare up into a pink colored ceiling, pondering of the most basic questions he could think of at the moment.

Why on earth did Amy only have one guest bed when she had so many friends? Hadn't she ever expected that more then one to stay over at her place? Of course a hero like him knew how to rough it up from time to time, and suffer the hardships of life on the road. But he hadn't ever expected to one day be sleeping on the floor, sharing a single blanket with Knuckles while Tails got the nice comfy bed.

Closing his eyes as he fought down the high level of stress and annoyance running through him, Sonic pushed himself up from the floor and walked through the guestroom, opening the door into the other parts of the place, closing it on the two snoring furries behind him with a less then friendly attitude as a small bang rang out.

Stretching his arm above his head and yawning loudly, Sonic stepped around a small plant pot and into the main room of the apartment. A couch, a single lazy chair and a TV stand on a small table for itself, were the first things he noticed as he scratched his right ear. Then he noticed the coffee table a second before his foot would have smacked into its leg, the thing getting a dark glare as he moved to walk past it.

Looking at it, he shook his head and ignored magazine laying on it, most likely it was the usual teenage girl stuff mags. Turning his head to the side, It was a nice place Amy lived in, that much he would admit. But it lost a lot of its coolness thanks to the nicely framed picture she had of him on that dresser in near the window. "How did she get that picture?" He mused as he looked at himself sleeping under a tree, a bit of drool running out his mouth.

Placing it back on it the top of the dresser, he grimaced as he walked over to look out the open window and into the downtown area of Station Square. The repaired Casinopolis clearly visible from her room, as well as a small diner and a cloud of smoke rising up over a couple of buildings. "What the?!"

"Is there something wrong mister Sonic?"

Turning his head to see Cream and Cheese look at him with a concerned expression, he quickly shook his head a bit. "No, I don't think so Cream, why don't you go and wake up Tikal." Watching her walk away, Sonic closed his eyes as a feeling of regret flowed through him for lying to the young rabbit, he did think something was wrong, very wrong, and it felt like it was only going to get worse.

Huge clouds of smoke mostly meant only one thing in Station Square, an attack by Eggman. And there was only one thing that Eggman could really be after in the large metropolis this time. "Why can't things ever be easy just for once?" But then again, who wanted nice and easy? Nothing exciting ever happened from that.

--------------------

The loud roar from Chaos shocked the pink hedgehog out of her quiet petting of the chao, the sudden shaking of the whole area didn't help to calm her or the small creatures down either, as they scattered away from her in an instant.

Spinning around with her trusted Piko Piko hammer ready, she stared as the Chaos covered Master Emerald erupted into a bright green light, the water monster merging with it as a second roar filled the sky. "What, what's happening?"

Even as she asked, the whole area calmed down, the Chao looking relived as they settled back down again. But to Amy, a feeling of danger and fear began to from inside of her. Whatever had happened, couldn't be good, the roar from Chaos had been the same as when he had destroyed.

Rushing forward, Amy nearly tripped as she moved up to the top of the shrine, hands grasping onto the surface of the Master Emerald as she saw the one thing she didn't want too inside of it. Chaos stood in the middle of a battleground, a single badly hurt Chao covering behind him with other trying to escape.

And next to them, Omega lay in a small heap with traces of a heavy beating on his robotic body. "Oh no." Feeling her body grow cold, Amy pressed her hands harder against the gems surface as her eyes widened in fear for what he could do. "Sonic!" Her cry echoing through the area as her mind came up with only one answer to the source of all that destruction and pain.

Eggman.

--------------------

Head snapping up, Sonic eyes blinked as he could have sworn he heard a voice, rather familiar one as well. One he hadn't heard so scared since that day on Little Planet, when Metal-Sonic had kidnapped her. "Amy." A cry for help without any insults thrown at the one, who had kidnapped her, hurt her or threatened her, only pure fear.

Jumping out through the window as the door into the living room swung open, he cached a brief patch of red and orange color as Knuckles and Tails looked on side by side. And then the world blurred past him, windows and shocked resident meaning nothing to him as he raced along the wall of the apartment blocks themselves.

And then he jumped off to buildings wall as he reached the Casinolopolis sign, not even stopping long enough to give an apologetic look at the young boy he nearly knocked over. Only a need to find out what could cause her to cry out loud enough for him to hear her despite her entrapment in the Master Emerald

Back in the apartment, Tails and Knuckles shared a shocked glance, before rushing over to the window, both of them wanting to see what could cause Sonic to act like that. Their eyes getting drawn to the one thing out of place in the town, the large cloud of black smoke. "Great." The word spat out sarcastically from Knuckles as he slammed a first into the wall. "It couldn't just be easy for once could it?"

"Tails, Knuckles." Tikal's voice came as she and Cream entered the room, both of them having a fearful expression as the peach colored echidna slowly held out the radio towards them. "We have a big problem."

"To repeat, Doctor Eggman's robots attacked Night Babylon just minutes ago, destroying Club Rouge with a missile attack, and sources says they're fighting some kind of monster right now. Police are advising people to stay away, and. This just in, reports confirm that there is a battle going on right now, between the mad doctor's machines and what has been confirmed as the water monster who attacked the city two years ago."

Feeling his heart slow down at the broadcast, Knuckles turned back to face the cloud of smoke. "That's not a problem Tikal, it's a catastrophe." His words making them all looked towards the smoke cloud with a darker feeling of dread then before.

Turning back to the three behind him, the red colored echidna shot a determined look at the two tailed fox. "Tails stay here, help Tikal and Cream find a way to free Amy." Seeing the unspoken question in the fox eyes, Knuckles reached down and pulled a bit on his lift glove. "Don't worry, I'll go and help Sonic."

Nodding in agreement as Knuckles took off gliding through the window, Tails turned back to face Tikal. "Okay, Tikal do you have." Noting that she wasn't paying attention, Tails sighed and moved over to try and get her to answer, when he picked up the sound of a faint, but very familiar laughter. "Eggman."

Growing louder, the mad human scientist slowly moved down form his hiding place above the apartment, flying type badniks hovering around his Egg-O-Matic. "Well, if it isn't Tails and Cream, and who is this, a new friend of yours?" Looking over at Tikal as he asked, he quickly shrugged as he declared it a pointless question in any way. "Never mind, I only need one of you to ensure a success of my latest plan."

Clenching up his hands, Tails frowned as he gave a signal for Cream and Tikal to back up. "Not a chance Eggman, I won't let you kidnap anyone." Stepping forward, he cast a quick look at the badniks and grinned. "Sonic and Knuckles both trust me, and I won't let them down, you hear me?"

Laughing a bit at Tails ranting, Eggman leaned forward and grinned evilly as he warmed up the few built in weapons on his Egg-O-Matic. "I doubt that Tails, first he have to deal with my legions of Egg-Pawns, not to mention Metal-Knuckles, and you, you're simply a small problem to be dealt with." At the last part of his own rant, Eggman pushed a single button causing the Badniks around him to fly forward. "Badniks, capture them all, with them as my barging chip, Sonic and Knuckles will have no choice but to hand over the master emerald."

Tensing up, Tails gave a battle cry as he jumped forward to tackle the first Badnik as it came close enough to do so, the metal wasp never having a chance to avoid him as he smashed into it.

The others however, had more luck as they had the advantage of sheer numbers against the two tailed fox, and a narrow space that meant he couldn't fly off to safety, only retreat further back into the apartment as he punched, kicked and tail whipped any badniks that came to close.

And watching it all, Eggman grunted as he tapped a finger on the edge of his Egg-O-Matic. The whole thing was taking far to long, the plan needed a hostage to avoid failures, Metal-Knuckles was good, but he doubted the robot would hold up long against the combined force of Shadow and Sonic.

Finally getting tired of watching his precious machines get destroyed, the human scientist simply reached down and pushed a small button his controls. "Enough of this Tails, you're coming with me." As he spoke, several small metal spheres shot out, landing around the apartment, nearly hitting a badnik in the process. "Sleep tight fox!"

Raising an eyebrow in question, Tails gasped as the metal sphere suddenly began to hiss, yellow smoke pouring into the air around him. "Gas!" Moving back to avoid it, he yelled out in surprise as several tight metal legs clamped onto his body from behind. "Hey, let go of me!"

Then the Gas reached him, a sweet smell filling the air as his head began to lull a bit. "So...nic." Then everything blacked out around him as he fell asleep, the last thing he managed to notice were Eggman's laughter.

Watching the Badnik carry off the sleeping fox, Eggman continued to laugh a bit, finally stopping as he watched the apartment. "Hmm, the others got away." Twirling his moustache a bit, Eggman grinned and shook his head. "No matter, I only need one hostage."

Moving his small flying unit back, a dark smirk planted itself on his face as he looked at the building, a single finger pressing down on a button as he moved further away. "A small gift for Sonic, for all the trouble he have caused me." As he spoke, the weapon system kicked in and set a small missile in trough the window.

As a plume of smoke and fire ripped out through it along with parts of the wall, Eggman's laughter filled the air as two sets of eyes watched it all from below. Staying hidden until the human had escaped from sight.

Only then did Cream and Tikal move out into the open carefully. "I can't believe it, Eggman destroyed Amy's home and kidnapped Tails." Cream mumbled out as she held Cheese close to her. "We have to tell Mister Sonic about this."

--------------------

Looking up from his thinking spot, Shadow narrowed his eyes as the faint smell of smoke reached him, followed by a very easy to spot smoke cloud moving across the sky in a lazy fashion. The sight of it making him frown slightly as he leaned up a bit on his elbows, clearly whatever had happened had to be somehow involved with the faker.

And the only reason he even cared to notice it a bit more then normal was Rouge. She had to be involved in this as well, since she had asked him to delay the faker and his friends. But no matter how angry Sonic could get, he wouldn't cause that much damage to someone, the echidna was a god bet, but since he was with Sonic, the hedgehog would stop him before he went completely berserk, if he knew was best for him.

Shaking off a bit of sand from his quills as he pushed himself up, Shadow jumped off the beach rock he had been lying on. "Rouge, Omega, you have better be okay, or else." Taking off as he spoke quietly to himself, his felt his jet skates kick in and propel him forward more rapidly then he could ever run on foot.

Whatever had happened, it was big, and if it really did involve his comrades, he would protect them no matter what. He would not just stand by and lose everything he cared about, no matter how much he pretended not to care about them. He would fight for them with all he had in him, to the bitter end.

TBC.

AN: Eggman's back as a bad villain, not the lousy comedy relief he's been reduced too by Sonic Team lately. And yet I just had to have him redo one of the most overused villain plots ever, kidnap someone to gain the upper hand. Also, I hope I didn't make Shadow to OOC in the end.

The chapter doesn't feel so unfinished anymore, or am I wrong. Am I forever doomed to continue rewriting this thing until it is the most perfect chapter ever written for a Sonic story?


	8. chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes and Advance 3 spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

-----------------------------  
A good deed gone wrong  
Part VIII  
----------------------------- 

Fire raged through the area surrounding Rouge's nightclub as another few shots from attacking Egg-pawns streaked through the air, taking out cars and blowing holes in the surrounding buildings.

And in the middle of this battle zone, a water based monster known only as Chaos, stood defiantly before a hole into the local chao garden, and on the other side facing him, stood the latest of Eggman's super machines, Metal-Knuckles.

Inside the Chao garden, the reneged Eggman robot E-123 Omega had stood up, sensors working on providing him with all the data he was in need off. The red lenses that made up his eyes freezing as they scanned Rouge's body, the batgirl laying on the ground with Three Egg-pawns moving in around her. "New Mission Data: Protect Rouge, Secondary Mission: Destroy Eggman Robots."

Moving forward to send out a blazing level of bullets into the Egg-pawn's, Omega noted the fact that Metal-Knuckles was currently fighting an unknown enemy. Then he returned to scan the battlefield as several bullets tore through the Egg-pawns bodies, sending scrap metal flying as each one was ripped apart.

Sizing fire, as Rouge was safe form immediate attack, Omega stomped forward and took up a guard position in front of her, shooting each new robot that came to close to them.

Arriving at the scene, Sonic stared in anger at the level of destruction, and then finally at the robots turning around to face him. "Gotta deal with you guys fast, and then find out what Eggman's up to this time." Muttering out the words, the blue hedgehog streaked through the air as his homing attack lead him right into each robot in turn.

Making a quick landing on the ground, Sonic prepared to take out the last Egg-pawn, but stopped his charge as a red and black blur cut through it. "Shadow." Muttering out the name, the blue hedgehog stopped and prepared to face the ultimate life form.

Landing on the ground, the red and black colored hedgehog faced Sonic silently as he finished taking in the level of danger and destruction in the area. Stepping forward to get some answers from Sonic, he froze as his eyes cut something white in their corners. "Rouge."

Following Shadow's gaze, Sonic's eyes narrowed as he spotted Rouge as well, Omega standing protectively in front of her shooting everything that came too close. Then he saw something else, a deep green glow coming from the inside of the club, a glow that forced it's way through all the smoke with ease. "The master Emerald."

Then something else caught his attention as it soared through the cloud of smoke, something big, something heavy, and it was flying right at him and Shadow. "Toyota!"

Moving aside in the last second, Sonic stared after the car as it impacted the pavement and bounced off, windows shattered into pebbles, and a lone side mirror getting tossed off of it as it smashed into another car.

The whole thing making the blue hedgehog's heart beat a bit harder in his chest. If he hadn't seen it in time, he'd be nothing more then a messy spot on the pavement and right side of the car. Then the heroic and reckless part of him kicked in, causing a grin to form on his face.

Looked like it wouldn't just be a normal fight between him and a bunch of stupid Egg-Pawns, for once this day was really starting to look better.

--------------------

Moaning in pain as he awoke from his forced nap, Tails found himself staring at a flat metal plate above his head, solid looking bars on every side of him, and really hard bottom plate under him. "Great." as he mumbled out the word, the past few hours of events coming back to him as he took a few deep breathes of air.

He had been captured while trying to protect Tikal and Cream from danger, but the battle had been lost, and he had been captured, the sleeping gas the doctor had used must have knocked him out on the way back to the human's base.

Turning to the side as he picked up a shuffling sound, Tails glared down at Eggman while the human grinned back at him. The battle had been short, but still not a complete loss. But even him against all those Badnik's at once had been too much to handle, and Eggman's sudden sneak attack hadn't helped much.

The only good thing to come from it all had been Cream and Tikal's successful escape. But it didn't help the fact that he was now a hostage for a change. "Let me go Eggman, or else." A fact that made him angry enough to forget his current imprisonment, to spit out a threat to the human scientist.

Chuckling slightly as his captive's demand, Eggman simply turned to survey the remains of his current badnik army. "Now, I trust everything is in place, remember, I want both the Master Emerald, and the Hedgehog." Drumming a finger on the wall, he cast a quick look at the area he had chosen as the last Egg-Pawns hid themselves. "Good, now to make a quick call To Metal-Knuckles, I have a new mission for him."

Struggling against the bars on his small cage, Tails growled as he watched Eggman prepare a trap for his best friend and hero. "You won't get away with this, you hear me, Sonic will."

The rest of his sentence was cut off as Eggman slammed a fist against the side of the cage. "Sonic will do nothing, but do exactly what I want." Turning to stare at his badniks, the large human grinned a bit as he turned back to face Tails. "If he wants you back alive, that is."

Gulping at those words, Tails slowly backed up to the other end of the cage. "Sonic, please be careful." Then he closed his eyes and sighed as his felt his hands clench up, ignoring Eggman laughter as the human walked off.

As the door into the room closed, Tails looked up and grinned. It was time to prove that he was a hero, that he wasn't as dependent on Sonic anymore. It was time to come up with an escape plan.

--------------------

Jumping into the battle zone, Sonic wasted no time in clearing a path towards the apparent leader of the attack, halfway expecting to see a leader type Egg-pawn, or a new E series type robot, and in the extreme case, Metal-Sonic. But he hadn't really expected to see a robot Knuckles turn around to face him, or to suddenly have it sent flying by a transparent fist of water.

Roaring as he stomped out of the smoke, Chaos honed in on Metal-Knuckles as the robot pushed his way out of the wall he had impacted, the status scan kindly telling him that he gotten a total of 17 per cent of damage to his armor in the last five minutes.

Snapping his arms out, he would have grinned as several loud shots rang out, a single shell shooting out a small hole on his wrists each time.

Across from him, Chaos didn't do much as each bullet impacted his body, the small lead shells having no effect on him at all, other then make him a lot more angry. This red colored metal thing had dared to attack the Chao, the very creatures he were the guardian off, and he would be damned if he let it live long enough to even think of doing it again.

Watery arms lashing out as he got close enough, the water beast once again attempted to punch the robot, missing as the red color machine used his jets to escape a double whammy.

Landing heavily on the ground, Metal-Knuckles quickly switched from his built in guns, to the more heavy hitting weapons Eggman had designed him with. "You!" Getting interrupted as a black and Red blur roughly knocked him backwards, sparks shooting out as his laser systems took a direct hit.

Getting his defense shield up in time, Metal-Knuckles was treated to the sight of a very angry Shadow standing less then a few meters away from him. His tactical program working extra hard as it tried to figure out a way to defeat the ultimate life form, E123-Omega, Chaos and Sonic the Hedgehog at the same time.

Moving into a better fighting position, Sonic cast a quick look over at Shadow. "You okay buddy?" Getting a bit nervous at the look in the black and red colored hedgehog's eye, the last time he had seen that was on the Space Colony Ark, when Shadow wanted the whole world to pay for Maria's death.

Even as the two hedgehogs moved forward to tackle Metal-Knuckles, Chaos slid backwards, towards the Emerald that served as his home. Body embracing it easily as his eyes continued to stare at the battle scene. The strange creature would pay, but this form of his was to weak, more power was needed, and he would call that power to him.

Moving perfectly, Metal-Knuckles ducked under a Chaos Spear and blocked a homing attack by Sonic, still trying to figure out what do in order to turn a defensive battle into a offensive one instead. Silently, he praised Metal-Sonic for having gone up against the blue hedgehog, this organic creature was far more harder to take down then he had believed.

And the ultimate life form, the power of him alone had him on his metallic heels most of the time. It was a wonder he had survived this long fighting both of them at once. But even with both hedgehogs superior speed, they couldn't stand up to his shield.

Activating it, he grinned as the two went flying back with a shout of anger and surprise. "Yes, not even Metal-Sonic has managed to do this." Came the cold hearted voice from the robot as it began to stalk forward, dagger like hands glinting in the air as he raised them up to finish off his opponents. "Goodbye Sonic the Hedgehog."

Then a hailstorm of bullets ripped through the air, tearing into the armor plates and visor of Metal-Knuckles, the robot putting up the shield again to avoid more damage. "Who?" Scanners kicking in as he spoke, the echidna like robot froze as it spotted it attacker. "Omega, you're still able to operate?"

Not firing at the moment, the hulking E-100 model machine stomped out from the Chao garden, all weapons reloaded and locked onto Metal-Knuckles. "Mission, destroy all Eggman robots." Spitting out the familiar line, the red and black robot proceed to attack again, several new bullets tearing through the air in a relentless stream.

"Omega?" Shadow mumbled out as he jumped back onto his feet, right hand curled up and ready to send out another Chaos Spear if he had too, but stopping as his eyes were drawn back to the Choa garden, and the figure there. "Rouge!"

Next to them, Sonic spat out a bit of dirt and cast quite an angry glare in the direction of Metal-Knuckles. "Okay Tinman, There hasn't been a robot built that's been able to beat me yet." Feeling power build up, Sonic grinned as he unleashed it at the surprised robot as it kept its shield up. "Sonic Wind!"

Not wasting time even yelling out his attack, Shadow leapt up into the air and sent several chaos spears flying, each one hammering into the shields along with Sonic attack, and Omega's bullets. "Rouge, I'll make him pay for what he and the other robots have done."

Landing again, Shadow powered up another attack, rage burning in his eyes as he felt his body's stored chaos energy flow into his finger tips.

Next to him, Sonic had moved into a better position for a homing attack, fully confident that he could take down the robot even without Shadow and Omega pitching in to help.

And still shooting, Omega sensor remained fully locked onto Metal-Knuckles, up until the point where a high energy reading popped up in the screen, followed by another, and one more. "Several unknown objects approaching location fast, suggest change of battle tactics."

Dropping their attack stance, both Shadow and Sonic looked up as their eyes spotted the glowing points streaking through the sky, each one a different color. "The Chaos Emeralds."

Behind them all, Chaos roared out in anger as his order had been carried out, the master had recalled the servers to it, and once they came here. The strange creatures would pay for both almost hurting and endangering the chao, and when they had paid for that, he would find his friend, the friend of the Chao, Tikal.

"Sonic!" Shadows voice rang out through the air as he jumped off from the ground, grabbing a purple glowing gem as it shot past him in the air, The blue Hedgehog already off his feet and grabbing the red colored one, the other five completing their flight as they merged with Chaos's body.

Still recovering from the massive attack, Metal-Knuckles snapped open his chest plate, revealing another glowing stone built into it. "The Chaos Emerald won't save you this time around, for I have something to match that power." Arcs of power shooting out of the gem as the robot gave a cold laugh.

Spinning around as he heard the robot, Sonic eyes snapped down onto the gem in the robots chest, the shape and form of it too similar to the red colored gemstone in his hand. "But, there's only seven chaos emeralds, how can you have one as well?"

The blue hedgehog's question ignored by most of them as they were far to busy watching Chaos, the water monster shooting up into the air as a twister of water. Eyes growing larger as fins formed over his body. Two legs shooting out of the fish like body that shaped itself, the only solid things in the transparent body being the bone structure making up the legs and spine.

Facing the creatures before it in a more powerful state, Chaos mind worked as it went over the new information. The black and red one had one of the emeralds as did the blue one, the blue colored creature looking like the one who had freed his mind form anger and made him see how the Chao no longer need to be avenged.

Behind them stood the strange one, the one without any feel of life to it. And it had an emerald to. No it wasn't an emerald. Eyes focused on the pale glow from Metal-Knuckles chest, Chaos roared as he shook himself free of those thoughts. It didn't matter; all he needed to do was protect the Chao, by all means.

Swing his tail around for an attack, Chaos hissed as the water smacked through rubble, robots and hedgehogs alike, striking the echidna like robot head on and making it move back a bit. The thing was strong, but it didn't matter. He didn't fear anything; nothing mattered if he could protect the Chao.

Slamming his chest plate back into place, Metal-knuckles grunted as he cast a critic scan around the scene. Shadow, Sonic and Omega were down for the moment, Chaos having simply torn through them to attack. But they wouldn't stay down for long; he could already see them move.

While he had great power thanks to his special power source, it wouldn't matter in the end if his systems couldn't keep up with all of his enemies at once.

Add to it that events were getting more and more out of control, and retrieval of the emerald was becoming a hopeless goal by the second. The only thing that made any sense to his tactical programs was a retreat to form a new attack plan.

Following that line, Metal-Knuckles ignored the order to return with the master emerald and took off, jet's kicking in and saving him from another set of bullets and a water blast. "This isn't over yet, I'll return with all the robots forces currently stationed at Final Egg."

Shooting off as fast as he could, Metal-Knuckles quickly sent a signal to Eggman, informing him of the failed mission, as well as the data retrieved doing the fight. And as for now, he would just return to Final Egg and await a new battle plan from the doctor.

Roaring in anger as his target escaped, Chaos started to flow across the ruined surface, his body crushing everything in his way. Only to stop as two figures shot through his body, hitting his weak point with practiced ease, the blow sending his body to the ground in a giant puddle, a puddle that seeped into every crack in the floor and down into the basement of the club.

Spinning around as soon as he landed, Sonic frowned as he failed to see any trace of Chaos at all, the whole area as dry as it could get. "He's gone, damn it." Kicking a bit of rubble, Sonic looked down at the red chaos emerald in his hand. "He had really hope not to see those gems for a long time."

"Sonic, what happened here?" Knuckles voice broke in as the red Echidna moved into the area, hands head up into a battle ready position as the purple eyes shifted around to see if anyone was going to attack. "Where's Eggman and Chaos?"

"Good question echidna?" Shadow's spat as he walked over to them, purple emerald glowing in his hand as he stopped just a bit away from the blue hedgehog. "Care to explain all of this Sonic?"

Frowning a bit at the red and black hedgehog's tone of voice, Sonic shrugged as he proceed to tell him about the events that had taken place lately. "Then Eggman got involved in this whole thing, and well, you know what happen next." His voice a bit tired sounding as he faced Knuckles. "So what are you doing here Knuckles?"

Not answering Sonic, Knuckles pushed his way past him and moved over to the Master Emerald, the green glow soothing him as he placed his hand on it. "I'll do better this time, and make sure no one else steals you."

Narrowing his eyes in annoyance, Sonic shook his head a bit. "Can we focus on what's important now, we have to figure out what Eggman's up too, and stop him."

Turning away from the large emerald to face Sonic, Knuckles grunted a bit. "I know, we also have to get Amy out of this gem." The Master Emerald shrinking down to amore portable size as Knuckles picked it up, his eyes moving over to Rouge, as the white batgirl gave a small groan. "What about her?"

Giving an irritated look at his question, Shadow snorted a bit as he skated over to her. "I'll carry her, all you have to do is bring your gem and provide a place for to rest." Not leaving any room for an argument, Shadow followed after Sonic and Knuckles as they began the track back to Amy's apartment. "Omega, follow us will you?"

The red and black battle robot turning away from watching over the remains of a few Egg-pawns at the hedgehog's words. "Affirmative."

--------------------

Inside the gem, Amy breathed out a breath of relief and settled down. Rouge wasn't hurt, to badly. And the Master Emerald was safe with Sonic and Knuckles.

But she was still trapped in here, away from all of them; even Chaos had left the master emerald world. Leaving her all alone with the Chao

And it looked like she was going to be here a long time.

"Sonic, get me out of here, please."

Her words the only thing breaking the silence as the Choa still hadn't come out of hiding yet.

TBC.

AN: Well, what do you think so far, I'm drifting away from the part of Amy getting trapped in the emerald a lot, but it will soon refocus on that again, so don't worry.

A big thanks goes out to Tylec Asroc who pointed out the faults and lacks in the last chapter. The chapter has been resubmitted and should hopefully be a bit better, not to mention longer. I regret that I couldn't do much about the over exaggerated anime gasp scenes; they're still there.


	9. chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes and Advance 3 spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

  
-  
A good deed gone wrong  
Part IX  
-

"Aw Man!"

Sonic's words felt rather right as Knuckles nodded his agreement; it seemed like the only way at the moment to describe the destruction that had befallen Amy's apartment. Smoke was still coming out of it as fire fighter struggle to get the fire inside to go out. "She'll kill us when she's finds out."

Next to him, Sonic shuddered a bit at that thought. The echidna was right, Amy would be mad at the level of destruction that had been caused to this place, mad enough to use her hammer for more then just a few treats to their health. "Tails!" The words suddenly yelled out as he remembered his two-tailed buddy who had stayed in the place along with. "Cream, Tikal."

"We're fine, Mister Sonic." Cream's voice drifted down to him as the rabbit girl landed next to them, her peaceful expression lost as a more scared one filled her face. "But Eggman got Tails, we couldn't stop him." Looking over at Knuckles, she blinked and smiled as she noticed the gem he was holding. "You found the Master Emerald, does that mean Miss Amy can be freed now?"

Getting a slightly spooked look on his face, Sonic cast a side-glance at Knuckles. "Well, I'll leave that up for him to explain." Facing turning more serious, Sonic cast a quick look at the group. "You said Eggman kidnapped Tails?"

Nodding in response, Cream slowly cast a look off to the side as a peach colored figure emerged from a group of nervous humans. "Yes, but he also said he would use him to make you and mister Knuckles hand over the Master Emerald."

Eyes flashing in anger, Knuckles held on a bit tighter to the gem in his hand. "That will never happen. Not as long as I'm around." Feeling Sonic looking at him, he backed away a bit. "Forget it Sonic."

Laughing a bit, Sonic shrugged as he turned back to face Cream. "Okay, you know where Tails workshop is?" Seeing her nod in response, Sonic grinned. "Good, Shadow and Omega are already there, along with Rouge." Facing Knuckles and Tikal next his eyes flashed with determination. "I want you all to go there, you too Knuckles, find a way to free Amy, and I'll deal with Eggman."

Opening his mouth to protest, Knuckles closed it as he coughed a bit from the sudden dust cloud left behind as Sonic took off running. As it settled, Knuckles shook his head. "Sonic." Muttering out the name with a bit of annoyance, Knuckles faced the rabbit girl and peach colored Echidna. "Well, let's go, Cream, Tikal."

The peach colored echidna looking up startled at his words and nodded. "Yes, of course." As they walked off, her eyes moved up to stare at the burning apartment, a slightly confused and fearful look in her eyes as she watched the fire and smoke coming out of the apartment.

-

Eggman's moustache shook with anger as he watched his currently and most powerful fighting machine standing before him. "You failed me, even with that special upgrade I gave you, you failed!" The human scientist slamming a hand onto a computer console as he yelled out the last part.

"But, they were." Metal-Knuckles started in an effort to defend himself, only to shut up as he saw the look he was given by the human scientist. "I am sorry Doctor Eggman."

Waving a hand through the air to silence his robot, Eggman turned to walk away, one foot hitting the metal floor harshly after the other as he moved towards his new super weapon, the thing he had worked on for the last few months and scrapped in favor of other more deadly looking machines for his more prominent plans.

Grapping his tool kit, he cast a dark look back at Metal-Knuckles. "Go and make yourself useful this time, I need someone to guard the main entrance into this place." His voice turning cold as he began to adjust a few screws, Eggman's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. "I suspect that Sonic will show up here soon, and I don't want to interrupted at this stage, maybe you can actually delay them for a few minutes."

Seething on the inside with rage of the sudden and complete charge of blame on him, Metal-Knuckles turned around stiffly and walked out of the room. Complaining inside his computer brain about the lack of true leadership in this operation.

Turning back to his new machine, Eggman rubbed a hand along the side of it. "Soon, you will be complete, and with your power I shall take over the world, and install the Eggman Empire as its new rulers." Laughing, Eggman returned to his work, robots moving out to help him as he began to move onto the more demanding parts.

Inside his cage, Tails kept a eye on the door that Metal-Knuckles had left trough, a sinking feeling of regret growing inside of him with each passing second, t had been a short moment where he had seen Metal-knuckles open up his chest for repairs, but it had been enough.

He had recognized the so called upgrade that this Metal copy had gotten from Eggman, and he had hoped it had been just a trick of light, that it wasn't his fake Chaos Emerald powering the robots and its weapons systems.

Turning back to the cage, Tails grinned as he finished his subtle work at last; thankful for all the spy movies he had wasted his time watching. Removing his shoe buckle from the door lock, Tails calmly pushed it open. Fully confident that Eggman's attention to his new mecha wouldn't be disrupted by his escape or anything else.

Landing on the ground as silently as he could, Tails quickly moved over to the doorway, watching as it opened for him with a soft swishing sound, the outer room free of any robots other then a cleaning robot trying to vacuum up some forgotten spare parts.

Quickly rushing through the room, the two tailed fox opened the door on the other side of the room and stepped out, a silent corridor meeting him with juts few robots patrolling it in the distance.

Casting a look back over his shoulder, Tails grinned as he took a step forward. "Gotta get out of here and warn Sonic." Then he froze as a loud blaring alarm went off, a red spotlight hitting him from the front. "Ah!"

Hovering before him, a badnik readied its weapon as several more robots began to show up in the distance. A single monitor placed in the corridor ceiling above the door turned on. "What, how did you escape?" Eggman's face popping up after a second, the doctor wasting no time in spitting out the question with an angry expression on his face.

Quickly moving forward, Tails kicked the Badnik before it fired, grinning as it shattered and released a small bird from its insides. "Sorry Eggman, but I decided to leave early." Waving cheerfully, Tails took off running, preparing to attack the robots in order to escape from the base.

Red in face from his anger, Eggman turned around and quickly hammered a fist down on a big fat red button, the move followed by more alarms going off through out the base. "Attention all robots units, Tails the Fox is trying to escape, all units on the upper Final Egg levels, find and capture him."

-

Standing with Crossed arms, Shadow tilted his head back and looked up at the towering structure in the distance. It looked impressive from where he was standing, but even he couldn't help but get a bad taste in his mouth as he noticed the huge, freshly painted Eggman logos on the sides of the tower proclaiming it as his current HQ. "That man has no idea of stealth."

Turning around, his eyes narrowed a bit as he picked up the sound of something moving through the jungle, one hand moving into place for a quick chaos spear attack.

The attack getting canceled as a blue hedgehog stopped right in front of him, pure confusion in his green eyes as he scratched his head. "I thought you went with Omega to Tails workshop?"

Turning his attention back to the towering base in the distance, Shadow narrowed his eyes. "I did, but with Omega looking after Rouge, I decided to come here instead of getting in the way." Hands clenching up at his side, Shadow began to walk away from the blue hedgehog. "Go back to your friends Sonic, I'll deal with Eggman this time."

Getting an arrogant look on his face, Sonic crossed his own arms. "Yeah right, like I'd sit out on this one, Eggman's mine to stop." Jumping over Shadow, Sonic grinned as the doors leading to the connect corridor slid open before him. "You go and help Omega take care of Rouge."

"No." Shadow's voice rather strained sounding as he roughly shoved Sonic out of the way. "This has nothing to do with you Sonic, Eggman attacked Rouge and Omega, and therefore he is my problem."

Getting up from he had landed, Sonic rubbed a bit of dirt from his shoulder. "You are really wrong on that Shadow, Eggman's taken Tails, so that means he is my problem now." Pushing Shadow slightly roughly, Sonic grinned a bit as he turned to face the door as Shadow stumble back from the sudden move. "I'll let him know that you wanted to beat him up as well, that is after I've trashed his latest plan."

Yanking back on one of Sonic's quills, Shadows eyes were narrowed into slits as he pulled back on it. "I meant it Sonic, butt out of this."

Even as both hedgehog's moved into battle ready stances, Metal-knuckles using his stealth mode, and the brilliant idea of walking along the top of the connecting corridor, cast a simple look down at the two hedgehogs. It would be so easy to just hit them with an attack while they were fighting each other, but the more darker side of him wanted to prove just how much better he was then Metal-Sonic.

And there was only one way to do that in his opinion, ad that was to trash Sonic in a fair fight. Or as fair as a fight between a metallic battle machine and weak organic creature could be.

Dagger like claws glinting in the air, Metal-knuckles prepared himself for a smooth, yet stylish attack on Shadow, after all, he only wanted to fight Sonic, not both hedgehogs at the same time.

When the moment to strike came, the echidna like robot flung itself down into the battle, light glinting it off its dagger like hands as both Sonic and Shadow turned to face this new threat.

Slashing down with his daggers like hands, Metal-Knuckles superior feeling vanished as Shadow glowed a bright purple for a split second and then vanished. "What the?" Then his memory banks kicked in and informed him of the abilities of the red and black hedgehog. "Chaos Control."

Smirking as he held out the purple chaos emerald, the red and black colored hedgehog began to glow with power of it, several golden bolts of power forming in his free hand. "I will make you pay for what you did to Rouge and Omega robot."

Watching the beginning of a fight, Sonic turned away to face the towering structure of Eggman Final Egg base, the top part sporting several searchlights that moved along the outer parts of it. "Shadow, handle him, I'm going after Eggman." Not waiting for an answer, Sonic took of into the connection corridor in a blast of blue color and a sudden gust of wind.

Facing off, Shadow grumbled a bit as it appeared he wouldn't get a chance for direct revenge against Eggman after all, but who cared. He could take out his anger at this robot anyway, it had been the one to destroy Rouge's club and hurt the batgirl.

Smiling in a very dark way, Shadow tossed off the Chaos Spears and moved in for a closer range battle, all the while thinking of how much he would enjoy destroying that machine.

Preparing for battle, Metal-Knuckles began to defend himself against the sudden, and very powerful offensive moves that the hedgehog let lose as he began pounding at him and his shield.

-

Inside the Master Emeralds world, Amy Rose sighed both from happiness and longing. She was going to be freed from here, that much she had confident in, Knuckles wouldn't let her stay inside the gem, nor would Sonic.

The only problem she had was the waiting. It was boring just sitting here on the shrine steps. Just how did Knuckles or Tikal handle doing something like this for so long? She wanted to be out there in the real world, feel the wind as it brushed past her.

Standing up and feel her back and legs protest from her long stay in the same position, she cast a glance around the area, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. The Chao had refuse dot come out again, no matter how much she called, and the whole place was starting to annoy her.

Turning back to the gem behind her, she gave it a swift kick, letting it know how much she was tired of looking at it. If she ever got out, she wouldn't set foot on Angel Island for a month, maybe two.

Clenching up her hands, Amy closed her eyes as she wished she could get out the gem at that moment, that she wasn't trapped inside of it.

But of course it didn't work, she was still inside of the gem, trapped with the chao and watching a perfect sunbathing sky above her that wasn't really real anyway.

Giving a loud sigh and dropping to her knees, Amy forced back a sob and settled for curling up a bit, one hand trying to draw a line in the soft ground, but not having much luck in doing so.

Left eye ticking a bit as she pulled her hand back, Amy looked up at the clouds. "I want out of this place!" Her voice echoing in the air around her, breaking the silence that had been getting on her nerves, but not helping her to calm down at all.

"Amy?"

Nearly falling down on back in shock, Amy spun around, or as good as she could while sitting down. "Who, who's there?" Her voice trembling a bit with a sudden wave of fear as she recalled the last time she had heard that voice in her head.

"You can hear me?"

Not knowing how to respond to that question, Amy cast a confused look around the area, finally letting her shoulders slump down. "Yes." If she was going to go insane from her stay in here, she might as well just accept it; it was the only thing to do at the moment anyway.

"You can, great." A bit of silence followed that statement as if the voice had turned its attention to someone else. "Okay listen up, we're trying to find a way to get you back out of here soon, so just hang in there."

Opening her mouth to reply, Amy stopped as she thought a bit about some more. "Ah, you mean you're not just a voice inside my head?"

If the voice had been around in a body, Amy could have sworn that it was laughing. "No, it me, Tikal, I'm mind talking with you through the Master Emerald." That was at least the way it sounded to her. "Oh yeah, Cream says hi, and that she don't want you to give up yet."

Smiling a bit at that comment, Amy nodded in response, lightly smacking herself when she remembered that the voice wouldn't be able to see it. "I will, and tell her I said thanks." No reply came after that, but Amy was sure that Tikal had heard the last bit.

Still smiling as she turned around, She looked out over the area, no longer upset at being trapped here. It didn't matter, she was fully sure of the fact that she would be free soon.

-

Removing her hands from the smooth surface of the shrunken Master Emerald, Tikal smiled as she watched Knuckles reclaim it as fast as he could. "I got in touch with her." Her words making the small group look up a bit. "And she says thanks for your support Cream."

Turning her head a bit as the young rabbit smiled, her face took on a small frown. "Knuckles, I did not sense Chaos with in the Master Emerald." Her eyes staring right into his purple ones as he faced her with a grim expression. "He is still out there isn't he?"

Simply nodding in reply, Knuckles put the Master Emerald into his glove as he turned to look out the train window with a troubled expression, so much had happened recently that he really hadn't had the time to sit down and really focus on the events properly.

Closing his eyes, he could still see and almost feel the time when Angel Island fell down into the ocean, and it wasn't just this last time, it as all of them. And each time had been a cold reminder of how he had failed as a guardian, but letting Rouge steal it while he was right next to it, it was the last straw.

When he had the Island floating in the sky again, he would seek out a new hiding place for the Master Emerald, it was clear that both the Hidden Palace and the old shrine was not suited for the job anymore, far to many knew about those places.

It was only the soft touch of a hand on his shoulder that made him look up, forgetting the more darker feelings that had risen from his reflections of events. "Yes?"

Facing him with a curious and just as thoughtful expression was Tikal, the peach colored Echidna looking at both him and the coast line. "Don't blame yourself Knuckles, there are things in life that simply can't be prevented, no matter how much one try." Her eyes getting a slightly haunted look in them at the end of her sentence.

Getting a puzzled expression, Knuckles felt like scratching his head as he went over the words from her, going back over the events with each loss of the Master Emerald, every time Angel Island had fallen to the surface of the world. Had he really been able to prevent each attack, each loss of the large gem in a way?

"We'll be arriving at the Mystic ruins shortly, everyone who has to get off is kindly asked to prepare to depart the train."

Looking up as they reached the train station, the small group stood up and walked towards the doors of the train, each of them doing a slight stretch as they stepped down onto the wooden platform.

Walking down the stairs and reaching the flat area of the Mystic Ruins, Knuckles smiled a bit as he started to feel at home. The place looked like his Island in so many ways, that he was hard pressed not to just pull out the Master Emerald and hide it somewhere nearby.

"Knuckles?" Tikal's voice question as she stopped next to him, her eyes taking in the view of the ocean and grassy landscape, so unlike the place she had grown up, but still reminding her of the area around the Master Emerald.

The thoughts of that place making her wince a bit as she the red colored Echidna pull out the gem, it's glow a bit brighter then before as she watched it for a short time, her mind almost telling her she could see Amy Rose sitting inside of it, having taken her place as a payment for releasing the trapped soul with in. A soul they were seeking a way to free from this imprisonment she had to suffer.

A prison that shouldn't have been hers and not the pink hedgehogs to suffer in. "I'm sorry." The fact that she spoke the words out loud got the attention of both Knuckles and Cream as they focused on her after a bit. "This shouldn't have happened, I didn't mean for it to happen." Seeing them both get a highly confused look, she lowered her head. "I wanted to be free, to once more feel the sun on my face, the wind through my fur, to live in the real world instead of the one within the Master Emerald."

Feeling a single tear run down her cheek, she looked up at them both with pure sadness in her eyes. "Amy's wish was partly granted because I wanted out from it so badly." Not seeing it, but guessing that they were horrified at her words, Tikal quickly moved to avoid facing them. "I hadn't expected it replace me with her, I didn't even think anyone would make such a wish until she did."

Moving quickly, the peach colored echidna grabbed the Master Emerald from Knuckles, holding it in her hand protectively as she back away quickly. "But, I can't handle it, pretending that things will be okay, we all know that there is only one way to free her." Closing her eyes tightly, she focused on her emotions completely. "The servers are the seven chaos, chaos is power, power enriched by the heart."

Reaching forward to stop her as he began to figure out what she would do, Knuckles snapped out a hand to grab her, only succeeding in grabbing the Master Emerald as she moved back. "Tikal Don't!"

Opening her eyes as she felt Knuckles grab the gem, she didn't get chance to stop before uttering out her wish. "Please, release Amy Rose from within the Master Emerald!"

Feeling his temper flare up at the words, Knuckles cast a desperate look at Tikal. "That wasn't her wish, she wanted me to be happy, not for you to be free!" Yelling out the one thing he had kept to himself for so long. Then everything faded away in a brightlight, a sickening feeling of something getting pulled away from him, even as he himself was falling down.

TBC.

AN: Well, another chapter done, but it took slightly longer to write then the others, but then again, they keep getting longer and longer, and such a cliff hanger I'm ending the chapter with after all that time, what will happen to Amy, Knuckles and Tikal.

Just why is it that keeps on changing the codes for the preview function, It getting on my nerves having to change my break lines for a scene change every single month.


	10. chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes and Advance 3 spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

-  
A good deed gone wrong  
Part X  
-  


Asthe green light died down, Cream and Cheese could only stare in horror as the Master Emerald landed on the ground harmlessly, it surface glittering strangely as it returned to its normal size. "Mister Knuckles, Miss Tikal!" The young rabbits scream filling the air as she moved towards the gem.

Before she could reach it however, a set of clamps settled down onto it, causing her to stop in shock at the sight of it as the gem was lifted up into the air. Looking up to find out what was going on, Cream gasped as a large Egg-O-Matic hovered in the air with the Master Emerald now attached to its bottom. "Eggman!"

Then the one controlling the machine became clear to her as it moved away. It looked like the doctor but had a small metal dome for a head and a more round body. "Come back with that gem, please!"

Not answering, the robot began to increase the speed of the Egg-O-Matic and gained height at the same time, the only thing running through its head was its mission. Reclaim the Master Emerald by the direct orders of Master Eggman.

"All Eggman robots must be destroyed!" The sudden droning voice of Omega reached the Eggman like robot as a swarm of bullets ripped through the belly of the Egg-O-Matic, heavily damaging the flight ability of it, but not completely destroying it.

Turning her head to see who had attacked the Eggman like Robot, Cream blinked as she noticed Omega lumbering towards her, Rouge moving slowly behind it as she supported her Wight on his side. "Mister Omega, Miss Rouge." Her voice making the female bat cringe as she lifted her free hand up to her head, trying to somehow making the pounding feeling going through it stop.

Facing the young rabbit, Omega called up her name from his memory banks as he lumbered closer to her. "Miss Cream, what happened to Knuckles and the female Echidna?" The question making the female bat on his side, look up as well.

"They vanished when Tikal made some kind of wish on the Master Emerald." Her voice a bit lower then when she had greeted them, she turned to face Rouge when the batgirl moved her hand away from Omega. "Are you okay?"

Giving the young rabbit an annoyed look, Rouge looked up to see the Egg-O-Matic barely moving as it tried to escape. "What are you waiting for Omega, stop that robot!" Her own yell sounding like a series of explosions going off inside her head, making her moaned a bit as she grabbed it to make the pain go away, all while she felt Cream move over to support her.

Moving forward at her command, Omega locked his more heavy weaponry onto the flying craft, letting lose a series of missiles and rounds of bullets in one go, each one of his attacks scoring a direct hit on the Egg-O-Matic. "Target completely destroyed."

The Master Emerald falling down and lading with a clinging sound in the middle of a small pond formed by a waterfall, its light back to normal as it just lay there.

Still supporting Rouge, Cream helped her over to looked own at the large gem stone from the top of the small hole that the pond lay in. "You did it!" came the happy cry from the young rabbit as she turned to face Omega. "You're the best."

Merely staring at her for a second at her comment, the tall body of Omega moved over to scan the Master Emerald as he failed to figure out a way to respond to her. "No damage sustained to gem stone at present moment, but moving it will be a problem."

Snorting softly, Rouge moved to look down at it, her eyes taking in each and every one of the finely cut surfaces of the large gem. "It had better be okay, my nightclub's a ruin because of that thing."

"We have a bigger problem then that." Cream almost yelled out, as she pulled on Rouge's arm, desperate to get her attention for just a minute. "The gem took Knuckles and Tikal, just like it did with Amy."

Eyes and head snapping around to stare at Cream, Rouge blinked her eyes a few times as she tried to figure out what the young rabbit had said. "Knuckles, is gone?" Seeing Cream blink, her eyes lit up with sheer amusement. "Well, if he's gone, no one can blame me for claiming ownership of the Master Emerald!" A dark laughter coming from her as she moved to reclaim the Master Emerald.

Next to her, Cream gave a shout of shock at the female bats refusal to help them. "No, you can't! We need the Master Emerald to free Amy, and the others!" Moving t o Tackle Rouge at her last yell, she had second to blink as the light show started up again, this time in a strange pulsing manner.

-

Winds rarely moved inside the perfect world created by Master Emerald to house the soul of first Tikal, then Amy Rose along with the living guardian of the choa, Chaos. Today however a roar erupted as a storm level wind ripped through the area, starting at the shrine top and then traveling out to the edge of the small world.

As it faded away and left the place in silence, Amy Rose slowly stood up from her safe spot, hands still holding onto one of the shrines pillars. The wind had taken her by surprise, but she had still managed to grab a hold of something to support her before she was quite literally blown away.

Now that the wind had died down, she could cast a look ahead and frown as two figures became clear, one that's he knew somewhat, and one she had only seen once before in a dream and as a ghost fading away in the sunset filled sky of a ruined city. "Knuckles? Tikal?"

As she spoke out each name, the Echidna it belonged to groaned and hesitantly sat up, eyes blinking slowly at first then rapidly as they saw not only Amy, but also a place they both recognized instantly from memory.

Getting up from the hard ground first, Knuckles quickly brushed off a bit of dust from his arms and reached down to help Tikal up as well. Even as the peach colored echidna leaned on him to steady herself, the red colored guardian of the Master Emerald was busy taking in his surroundings, looking for any kind of danger.

As he finished, he focused on Amy again, noticing that she had moved back a bit from him, no doubt wondering what his reaction would be. Clearly she was expecting it to be an aggressive one by the look on her face. "Amy?" His voice making her nervous as he focused on her, no doubt she was fully expecting him to start a lecture on how she shouldn't have messed around with the Master Emerald to begin with. "Is this where I think it is?"

Opening her mouth to reply, Amy was beaten to it by Tikal as she stepped away from Knuckles. "This place is limbo, sort of." her voice carrying a bit of doubt in her own statement. "The Master Emerald created this place based on the memories of both me and Chaos when we were first imprisoned here."

Turing to watch the horizon that barely changed, she sighed as she easily recognized every detail from her own memory. "My soul resided in here as payment for the power needed to pull in Chaos and imprison him." Facing Amy she gave a sad smile at the pink hedgehog. "When you wished for Knuckles to be happy, you freed me from my prison, and your soul was placed here instead of mine."

Eyes narrowing a bit, Amy nodded as she could understand some of it, not all of it, but some of it. "And you took my place out there, until my wish had been for filled?" Her voice not revealing her own fear at the answer she just knew would be a bad one.

Opening her mouth, Tikal wondered about herself. If Knuckles did become happy, would that mean she'd be pulled back into the Master Emerald the instant he achieved that? The thought alone sent a shiver down her spine, but then another side came up. If she made him happy, her sudden imprisonment would leave Knuckles hurt and sad, thus meaning her was no longer happy and therefore she couldn't be sent into the Master Emerald.

There would be no end to the wish until the guardian died, whatever would make Knuckles happy would be provided to him, with Amy life as payment for it. "How do you undo a wish like this, there'll no end to it." Her voice shaking a bit as the full impact of it hit her.

"You overpower it with another one, a more powerful wish." Knuckles replied as he rubbed hand over his head, he was together with Tikal and Amy on a world locked off from everyone else. Most guys would have no doubt killed for that chance he mused, but all he could think off was how to get out, cause there was no way he would spend eternity locked up in here, no matter how cute the girls were or how paradise like the prison looked. "And I am very much open for any ideas on what to wish for?"

Tikal looked around nervously as she began to fiddle with one of her dreadlock like quills, her mouth closing a bit. "We can still try the original plan, to free Amy by wishing her to be replaced with something or someone else." The words spoken rather low as she avoided looking at Knuckles, not wanting to see the hurt look she knew her words were causing. "I should be trapped her, not Amy, not you, just me."

Taking a deep breath as he clearly heard her, Knuckles slowly turned to face her, eyes slightly narrowed as he watched her reaction to it. "I will not give up, there has to be a way to get you both out of here." Voice colder then Tikal had ever heard it, Knuckles turned to face the Master Emerald. "You were trapped when you wished for the Master Emerald to stop Chaos from destroying, your body's life-force was used to carry it out and your soul was trapped."

Lifting up a fist Knuckles growled as he stared at the gemstone before him. "But we stopped Chaos again, he has no wish to destroy the world, he's peaceful now."

"No." Amy's voice cut through as she walked closer to them. "I saw Chaos when he left, he wants to hurt someone for what they did." Lowering her eyes, she faced the floor of the shrine. "Chaos is going to destroy Eggman for hurting the chao."

Giving a deep sigh Knuckles reached out to touch the Master Emerald, feeling it as nothing more then a bit of cold fog around his gloved hand when it passed through. "Sonic's fighting Eggman, he will stop Chaos as well, I'm sure of it." Closing his eyes, he faced both Amy and Tikal. "And we still need to find a way to free you Amy, and you as well Tikal." Seeing their confused looks, he gave a short, sheepish smile. "I mean it, cause if as much as one of you have to remain in this place, I will never truly be happy."

Blushing heavily, both Tikal and Amy looked away at Knuckles words, the red colored guardian echidna failing to see it as he refocused on the emerald. "There has to be something with the power to free you, but what?"

The three furries shared a look as each of them tried to figure out what could be used to free someone from the prison inside the Master Emerald. A thinking that was interrupted as Amy slowly noticed that her fur were beginning to stand up, almost as if it had been charged with static electricity, the sight making her blink her eyes a bit. "Um, what's going on."

Looking up at her sudden question, both Knuckles and Tikal stared as Amy slowly faded away from their sights, her eyes showing a bit of fear as she briefly faced them before being gone completely.

Facing Tikal, Knuckles had a stern look of annoyance on his face as he saw her slightly guilty expression. "I take it your wish was just granted?"

Eyes moving to stare at Knuckles as he spoke, Tikal could only mumble out a single word. "Ups." No matter how little it did to help cool solve the current situation; it still helped her a little to voice out her feelings.

-

Eyes rapidly blinking as she could see again, Amy found herself facing a wall of dirt and grass, before her sense told her that her boots were filling up with water and her dress getting soaked. Looking around she saw the reason why, as she was standing in a small pool right next to the Master Emerald. "I don't believe this, couldn't it have dumped me back of dry land for crying out loud."

"Amy?" Cream's voice came in a questioning manner as the young rabbit looked down at the pink hedgehog from the edge of the small pit holding the pond. "You're back!" This statement was follow by the young rabbit jumping, gliding down with the use of her ears to grab Amy in a hug, effectively knocking them both back into the water.

Coming up to the surface of the pond and spitting out the water in her mouth, Amy watched as Cream did the same next to her, the rabbit giggling a bit before walking up onto the shore. "Um, sorry about that Amy."

Following Cream out of the water, Amy smiled a bit as she apologized to her. "It's okay, I was getting soaked before anyway." Watching the top of the pit Amy blinked as Rouge and Omega showed up as well, both of them staring down at them with the same uncaring feeling to it, not even greeting her or saying anything. "Hey, you mind helping us get out of here?"

Her answer came in the form of a snort from Rouge as she moved back away from the edge. "I would, but my body hurts to much to do more then just walk around." Moving back over the edge, the female bat's eyes moved to the large glowing green gem beside Amy. "But if you don't mind, I think Omega can pull you and the Master Emerald out of there."

Facing Rouge with a I-don't-think-so look on her face, Amy turned to face the Master Emerald, The place that had been her prison for what seemed like forever to her, and now housed both Knuckles and Tikal inside of it was just lying there in the water, looking so harmless. "I'm sorry you guys, I didn't think my wish would do this." Voice low as she spoke, the pink hedgehog grunted as she reached out and struggle to pink up the huge gemstone.

Behind her, Cream watched Rouge as she got a slightly annoyed expression on her face, Cream turned back to help Amy lift up the gemstone. "Amy, did you happen to see Miss Tikal and mister Knuckles? They were here just a minute ago, and then they vanished." Using the chance to ask Amy as she was still bothered by their sudden disappearance

Mouth opening a bit, Amy felt her mood drop down a bit more. "I did Cream, I did." Even as she spoke, Amy couldn't help but feel a bit lost as it was becoming clear that she was now going to find a way to get both Knuckles and Tikal out of the gem on her own, since the hotheaded guardian wouldn't leave without Tikal.

Why couldn't things just be simple for once?

-

"Chaos Spear!"

Forming his shield as the words rang out, Metal-Knuckles felt his system buck a bit under the pressure of the more powerful attacks that Shadow the Hedgehog had thrown at him in this fight, clearly the emerald in the passion of this hedgehog did more then just allow him to perform chaos control.

In fact, his scans had shown that the hedgehog was actively drawing on its power, keeping himself fully powered for this battle, and therefore unable to tire. Rather annoying when he thought about it. The only one who should be able to fight like that without tiring should be a machine.

And he was the only battle machine around. "Die!" Screaming out the word, Metal-Knuckles let lose a shower of plasma bolts that ripped across the small area, setting trees and the grass a blaze where they hit. All except that blasted red and black hedgehog that had once again simply vanished.

Scanning the surroundings as fast he could, the red colored robot red powered up his shield as fast as he could, thankful that he had gotten it up when a black and red sphere slammed into it, pushing him back through the dirt as the homing dash was followed up by several close range chaos spears.

The battle hadn't been going his way when it started, and it still wasn't going his way now, his systems were over taxed as the black and red hedgehog attacked him constantly, not leaving him much time to come up with a defensive plan, or offensive one for that matter either.

Landing on the ground, Shadow smirked as he saw the robot stagger back some more, it wasn't often he get to let lose like this, but it was far to tempting not to do so right now, the robot had been the one to hurt Rouge, and while Eggman had sent it, he still wanted to get back at the talking trashcan but reducing it to scrap.

Drawing in more power from the emerald, the black and red hedgehog was faintly a where of how it was affecting, chaos power was something his body was built to handle and draw on naturally, but to have access to the full amount of power thought the chaos emerald was something else, and to draw on it in the amount he was doing now, it was like a drug to him. "Chaos spear!"

As the colorful bolts of chaos energy once again shattered Metal-Knuckles shield, Shadow reflected that it might be best to finish the battle before he let himself be drawn completely into the feel of the chaos power and decided to live up to its name.

Shooting off as he saw the opening, Shadow grinned as he felt his quills scrape against Metal-Knuckles armor and not his shield, it was clear that it was down for a period of time again, and it time to use that period to his best. Several bolts of chaos energy flicked out at his command and blasted the robot further back.

Then he landed on his feet and watched as his opponent fall down in a sparking heap of metal, Shadow simply giving a snort as he turned to face the towering base of Eggman's, the place reaching up a good deal. But it didn't matter, one good Chaos Control and he could teach Eggman to stay away from him, Rouge and Omega in the future.

He had the power to do so now, and with Sonic's emerald, he could show the world that no one should mess with Shadow, no one. Pulling out his purple chaos emerald, Shadow grinned a bit as he felt its power seep into his body, ready to carry out his command. "Chaos!" Then everything went downhill as the ground erupted into a small sized earthquake, growing bigger with each second as several small geysers of water shot out from every crack in the ground.

Pushing himself up, Metal-Knuckles's sensors locked onto Shadow as the black and red colored hedgehog was thrown into the air by the sudden rush of water blasting out below him, the purple emerald ripped from his hands in the process. Then the water turned towards the robot, and smashed into his already badly hurt armor.

After that, all the robot could see was the clear blue sky, part of the cliff wall and the jungle below as gravity pulled him down. His body having a less then the desired chance of surviving an impact from this height, even with a fake chaos emerald as his power source.

Then the impact came, sooner then expected, but with the predicted results, his jet engines was ruined beyond repair, his weapons and motor systems wrecked. And his power supply nearly lost. Every scan he made showed the same thing as he had expected, but with a dark twist. While a quick shut down wasn't going to come, he would still shut down, but it would take a long time before it happened, time he would have to spend lying on his back, sensors seeing nothing but a cliff face and blue sky.

And for the robot, he truly understood that comment he had heard one of those humans mutter out once, life truly did suck right now, even for a machine.

Ending his own flight, Shadow felt his mind slip into a blackout as he was introduced headfirst to a rather large palm tree painfully, twisting around to see what had attacked him; he only saw a transparent creature tear in through the doorway of the connecting bridge.

Struggling back up, Shadow shook the pain out of his head, one hand curling up into a fist. Without the Chaos Emerald he could barely use his chaos powers. Chaos Control was out of the question and a Chaos Spear would tax his system of the power need to function.

Walking over to look down the side of the cliff, Shadow eyes narrowed as he spotted a small red and black shape lying on a small outcropping a good deal down. "If I can't use the real thing, I'll just have to settle for an imitation." Mouth moving into a smirk, Shadow jumped out into the air, one hand grapping a small rock and guiding him down the side of the cliff as fast and safely as he could.

The effects of his overdose on Chaos Energy was fading, and for once he was able to think clearly as he climbed down, his anger had driven him to drawn on more then just a surface amount of the power on that purple gem stone, he had nearly gone into berserk mode.

Shuddering a bit, Shadow continued his descend towards the cliff below. When all of this was over he was going on a vacation away from Station Square, and away from those emeralds. He was starting to become to drawn to their power lately.

-

The inside of the Final Egg looked like he remembered it so well, the towering metal bridges and platforms connecting each floor with the other one through a central shaft, corridors leading away to each floor here and there. The only big difference he could see was the traces after a recent battle, but there was only one who could have passed by recently enough to have been in a battle here. "Tails"

As if speaking the name of his friend called him, Sonic found himself looking up as a sudden yelp sounded out, a bit of plasma fire flashing out far up above him as a signal. "Heh." Mumbling out the word, the blue hedgehog set about finding his way up to here Tails was, ducking a few badniks as they tried to stop him, tried to.

Jumping off the last small platform before reaching the massive one above him, Sonic wondered why he hadn't been hearing any more signs of struggle, briefly having a small vision of Tails laying defeated before an army of eggpawns. Then it was gone as Sonic found himself standing on the edge of the large platform.

And on the middle of it, he saw Tails huffing a bit as the remains of several eggpawns lay scattered around the two tailed fox. "Tails!"

Turning around as his name was called out, Tails smiled as he spotted a familiar blue blur heading towards him. "Sonic!"

Stopping in front of Tails, Sonic grinned a bit as he reached out and ruffled the head fur of the young fox. "Glad to see you too buddy." He replied out as he cast a quick look around the place again. "Looks like you really showed Eggman's eggpawns who's the best."

Grinning a bit Tails stood up as straight as he could. "It was nothing." Then his face grew serious as he looked up at the floors above them. "Sonic, Eggman's building another one of his battle mechas."

Mouth curling into a bigger smirk, Sonic felt his adrenaline flow increase at the thought of another fight with one of Eggheads fighting machines. "No problem, I'll trash it as well."

"Really hedgehog?"

Snapping around as Eggman's voice rang out through the shaft, Sonic narrowed his eyes when he saw nothing around him, besides the metal walls of the place. "Where are you Eggman?"

"On the roof of the Final Egg Sonic, but don't worry, I'll have the lift bring you up here."

Blinking a bit, Sonic looked down at Tails standing besides him. "Lift?" Then the question was answered as the platform they were stranding on began to move upwards, the ones above them moving out of its way as they picked up speed, the faint metallic sight of the top section of the shaft became clear as the roof opened up to show the outside evening sky.

A harsh wind buffed the top of the Final Egg tower, the mystic ruin jungle spread out around the place in all directions, the tall trees, rivers and animals of the place severing as a defense barrier for all who dared to invade. But that hadn't stopped Sonic in the past, the lone human scientist sitting in his latest battle robot thought as he watched the floor open up as the lift reached the roof. "Welcome Sonic!"

Turning around at the contempt filled word, a blue hedgehog smirked as he spotted the battle machine, seeing as it shaped very much like the Egg Emperor, this one had a large drill on one hand, and a rapid firing, plasma cannon on the other one Sonic shook his head. If the last one couldn't stop him, how could this version even hope to try? "Come on Eggman, try something new will ya."

Moving his eyes slightly to the side, Eggman allowed a small smile to spread over his face. "I see you found your little tag along, I'm surprised he hasn't run away in fear yet." The words causing Tails to glare right back at him as he faced Eggman as well. "It won't matter, this improved Eggman battle mecha will be your destroyer."

Narrowing his eyes, Sonic began to prepare to do battle against the battle machine before him. "You can't build anything that I can't destroy Eggman."

"We'll see hedgehog, we'll see." Eggman replied as he watched the weapon systems kick in, a metal shield lowering down to protect his seat from Sonic's attacks. "All Systems ready!"

TBC.

AN: Things are moving towards the end and a final battle. Only Two chapters left max, and an ending even I'm not sure to pull off looms ever closer, but I have a vague idea of how to do it. Also, if it is not to much trouble, I would like you, my readers, to also read my other Sonic story, "Flesh and Metal" and tell me what you think of it.

And if you really have some extra time, visit my homepage at: Well it seems there something wrong and linking to the site inside a chapter is not going towork, so all I can do is ask that you use the link on my profile page.

Sorry for the trouble,

Demino.


	11. chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2, Heroes and Advance 3 spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

* * *

A good deed gone wrong  
Part XI

* * *

The inside of the Final Egg had been built to house the majority of Eggman robot forces when he had used the base actively to take over the world, it had also served as the refuel point for the Egg Carrier and storage place for all of his weapons.

But it had never been built to handle something like Chaos's water shape, least of all his second strongest shape, Chaos 6, and definitely not if he was on a rampage. Badniks and Egg pawns alike were washed away or trashed before they could even attack the water monster that tore through corridor after corridor.

And to Chaos, the damage he caused didn't matter, all that mattered was finding the one who had been behind the attack on his defenseless chao. And when he found that person, there would a high prize to pay as he had still not completely forgotten the last attack he had seen on his beloved chao.

And even if Eggman hadn't been behind the attack in the distant past, he would still take out some of his anger over it on the fat scientist, he deserved that much for trying to use him, and attacking the chao over and over again with his machines.

At the same time far, far above the level that Chaos was on, Eggman was locked in battle with Sonic and Tails, feeling a bit of the same anger and resentment as he remembered all the times they had destroyed his precious machines, foiled his every attempt to take over the world.

And to his great annoyance and frustration, the hedgehog and fox simply refused to stand still long enough for him to rid his life of their presence. Instead he had blown up parts of the safety railing, left burn marks on the metal floor, and sent three missiles flying off into the jungle as Sonic had simply dodged each of them.

Tails had done much the same thing, while telling Sonic of the few weak points to his newly built Egg Emperor mark 2, all of them used by the hedgehog to inflict a great deal of damage to his system, the drill hand was useless as its power had been lost earlier and could only be used as a lance at this point.

Quickly moving across the controls, tapping in commands and activating weapon systems, Eggman growled as he took careful aim with his last batch of missiles, mentally adding in that the next version should carry more of them, and the strongest type he had.

"You're mine Hedgehog" Yelling out the words, he grinned as he saw Sonic standing on the lift leading down into the central shaft of his base, a correct hit would send both it and the hedgehog crashing to the bottom, all 79 floors down.

Or he would have fallen down, had that Blue rodent not moved to attack at the same time as he launched his missiles, the sound of the lift getting blow lose and sent crashing down, while a fireball formed. Instead all he got out of it was another hit on the weak armor plating surrounding the controls. "Blast!"

Standing still and watching the now gaping hole in the ground, Sonic smirked a bit as he faced Eggman's battle machine, the thing lumbering towards him. "Hey Eggman, why don't you just give up, that things no match for me, it's kind of boring to fight it actually."

Feeling his anger grow at the hedgehog's final comment, Eggman gritted his teeth together as he slammed both hands down onto the controls. The blue rodent was right, while the robot had tougher armor and better weapons; it was to heavy and slow moving to do much before Sonic would be gone.

It seemed his only chance of winning this was to use his final trump card, and no matter how much he hated it. It was a sure fire way to get rid of the hedgehog and fox, but at the high prize of a base and lab it wasn't something he really wanted to do.

But Sonic's death and the rise of the Eggman Empire was a prize he could handle losing a few things over. "Goodbye Hedgehog!" Yelling out the words, Eggman grinned as he slammed a hand down on a securely placed button off to his side. "I hope we won't meet again."

As he spoke, Eggman could feel the faint shaking of his last resort kicking in, the shocks waves caused by several explosives charges ripping the Final Egg apart were spreading up through the metal structure, causing it all to shake more and more wildly.

It couldn't be long before the buildings foundation gave out and they all ended up a smear on the jungle floor, except for him, his mecha came with built in hover engines.

Struggling to stand still, Sonic risked glancing into the empty hole that had held the central lift running up and down the main shaft. In the distance he could clearly make out the flashing light of several explosions. "Tails, grab onto me, we got to get out of here, Tails!"

Turning around to see why his buddy wasn't answering, Sonic blinked as he spotted the young fox staring in complete shock at something behind him, something that had come out of the main shaft, but what.

Facing the shaft again, Sonic's gaze swept over the hole to land on a transparent figure standing proudly there, eight legs sticking out to the sides as a massive tails rose up from behind it, several eyes turning to stare at him as its mouth opened and closed repeatedly like a goldfish. "Chaos."

* * *

Having gotten the rather large gemstone out of the pit it had landed in, Rouge faced Amy and Cream who were both busy trying to wring as much water out of their clothes as they could without removing them. "There, we got it out of the hole, anything else you want me to do for you?"

Staring at Rouge, Amy grunted a bit before shaking her head. "No, thank you for your help Rouge." Her voice sincere even as her eyes were busy trying to figure out what Rouge wanted out of this. "You sure you're okay? You didn't look to steady on your feet before."

Next to her, Cream looked up as well. "Yes miss Rouge, you shouldn't be running around, you were hurt remember." Her voice taking on a slightly apologetic tone, when she remembered that Rouge and Omega had shown up to save the Master Emerald from the Egg pawn when she had been unable to do it herself. "You should be resting."

"Oh give it a rest." Rouge fired back as she planted both hands on her hips, ignoring the several bruise, bones and other injuries telling her what a stupid thing that had been. "I've been hurt before, and compared to those times, this is nothing."

Giving her a non-believing look, Amy simply nodded as she walked over to look at the Master Emerald, the thing looking much larger now that it wasn't stuck in a water hole. "So, where do we take this thing anyway, I doubt my apartment would be a good place to store it."

Getting an even more concerned expression, Cream wondered if she should tell Amy that her apartment was currently nothing more then a smoking ruin, well more like a washed out ruin by now. "Um, maybe we should just take it over to Tails home, it just up on top of that hill right?"

Looking in the direction that Cream pointed, Amy grinned a bit sheepishly as she had completely forgotten about the young fox home away home workshop and airfield. "Well, it's a place, plus it closer then my apartment."

And not burnt into a pile of rubble, Rouge thought bitterly as she watched Cream and Amy lift up the gem. Her own home was a pile of smoking bricks and concrete pillars by now. Her club burnt to the ground like that, the place she had struggled so hard to make ends meet with, the one place she could always count on in such a busy jewel thief's hectic life as hers, gone.

And what wouldn't Shadow say, he no longer had a place to hide out any longer, no place deemed safe spot from G.U.N's relentless hunt of him for something they didn't want to repeat. "Where do we go from now on?"

"Memory files indicate that it would be wisest for you to remain in Tails workshop for the time needed to heal." Omega blurted out as he moved to pick her up, already figuring out that she would protest this action, but that it was the most affective way to get the job done in.

Feeling the ground vanish as two strong and very cold metal arms picker her up, Rouge twisted to see Omega moved his eyes sensors away form her and towards the stairs leading up to Tails workshop. "Omega put me down, I can walk up these stairs on my own you know."

Regarding the female bat as she spoke, Omega began to walk up the staircase, ignoring her complaints and attempts to break lose, only offering out a s few words when she began to struggled to much. "Stop moving, or my computer tells me you will reopen a wound."

Smiling a bit at Rouge's stream out of complaints over getting treated like that, and Omega's simple reply. Amy struggled to make sure that the gem would fall back down and crush her as they carried it up the staircase. "You doing okay up there Cream?"

Struggling to hold the gem, Cream did managed to smile a bit at her friend even if it was a rather fake one. "I'm doing fine now Amy, but I don't know how much longer I can hold this."

Looking up the long flight of stairs they still had to walk up, Amy face fell a bit. "Just hold out Cream, we're almost to the test ground, and then we can take a break."

Still struggling, Cream nodded a bit as she used her ears to help her hold the thing up with as well. "If you say so Amy, but it better be soon, or I'm going to collapse." Above her, Cheese gave a loud chao sound in agreement.

Smiling a bit at the rather familiar and well missed scene, Amy sighed a bit as she continue to carry the gem stone up as Cream pulled on it to help. "It so nice to be back, I didn't really think I'd ever miss something so simple like this so much."

Grinning slightly, Amy continued to watch her surrounding as they carried the Master Emerald up to Tails workshop, truly seeing how alive this place was compared to the world inside the Master Emerald. And so much bigger then just the area around the shrine, no wonder Tikal also wanted to be free to experience it again.

And that was one thing she was sure off, Tikal wanted to be free, it had been clear in the way she spoke of having to return to the Master Emerald.

And Knuckles, trapped because he didn't want to have any of them be unhappy, she had meant to give him a bit of happiness so he wouldn't mope about all the time, and Tikal had seemed to cheer him up, however short her visit had been. So Tikal had been freed to help Knuckles become happy when she made her wish, so it was clear that Knuckles was more then happy together with Tikal then anyone else, otherwise both she and Knuckles would have been free.

But how to free them both without getting sent in herself, or anyone else for that matter? So Knuckles could be happy, Tikal free of the emerald to see the world and be with Knuckles, but most importantly, how to keep herself from getting trapped inside that giant gem again when they did free Knuckles and Tikal.

There was no way anyone would be willing to take her place right?

* * *

Reaching the small outcropping of rock and the still sparking body of Metal-Knuckles, Shadow narrowed his eyes as he saw the robot's sensors move to stare at him, it's eyes looking into his own. "Just hand over the fake emerald robot, and I'll leave you to rust."

Giving the robotic version of a laugh, Metal-Knuckles ignored the way Shadow narrowed his eyes. "I have no fear of you Shadow the Hedgehog, my systems are ruined beyond repair, I have only enough power for another ten minutes of run time, no matter what you do, it doesn't mean anything to me."

Returning to his silent observation of the sky above, Metal-Knuckles did noticed as Shadow leaned in over him, the sudden jolt of wires and sensors telling him that his chest plate had been opened. "So, you need this thing then, I guess Chaos got the Chaos Emerald you had, or you wouldn't be taking my fake one."

Shooting a dark look at the robot, Shadow stood up and frowned as the fake emerald took a few wires and connecting parts with it. "Stupid piece of." Reaching out to rip them off, Shadow froze as a faint humming sound of power ran from the emerald and into him.

Snapping his head up as the sound grew larger, Shadow stared as the foot of Eggman's base exploded into several large color fireballs, metal shards and concrete slabs flying through the air with each thunderous boom. "No!" Not wasting any time to remove the machine parts and wires still connected to the gem, Shadow called on the power hidden inside of it. "Chaos Control!"

The sudden warping sensation of space of time washing over him, down through the wires and into Metal-Knuckles, the robot giving a loud protesting sound it was dragged towards Shadow's destination.

The top of the tower were a glow had once more formed, this one followed seconds later by a roar that succeed in overpowering even the sound of the collapsing tower as it finally gave up and began to fall down completely.

* * *

Having made it to the top of the tower, Chaos wasted no time in lashing out, his first attack sending Eggman and his metal machine flying backwards through the air, several explosions ripping the mecha apart as it fell over the railing and into the destruction below.

After having dealt with the doctor, Chaos turned to face Sonic, sensing that the blue hedgehog had the final Chaos Emerald in his possession. While it wasn't needed anymore, the emerald's power could come in handy if the doctor were still alive somehow.

Staring at Sonic with impassionate eyes, Chaos finally gave a faint roar before storming forward, fully intent of taking the gemstone from the blue hedgehog. That way he could finally ensure that his chao were avenged.

"Take this!"

The sudden sound of the human he had worked for once, making the water monster stop, just in time to feel several solid objects enter into his body. The sheer force of them suddenly exploding inside of his body enough to send him flying in several directions at once.

Tracing the path that the missiles had taken to get into Chaos, Sonic smiled a bit when he noticed Eggman hovering in the air, this time only using his Egg-O-Matic to move in. "I see your trashcan didn't survive the fight Eggman?"

Smirking back over at Sonic, Eggman held a fist and shook it at him. "Laugh all you want hedgehog, next time it will be me who wins. You can count on it" Turning the Egg-O-Matic around, Eggman began to fly away, still grinning as he looked over his shoulder at Sonic. "And in case you forgot, it is only a matter of time before my fortress is completely destroyed hedgehog, and I doubt even you can escape that."

Laughing darkly as he faded away into the horizon, Eggman ignored the sight of Sonic giving him the bird in his rear view mirror; he was in too good a mood to let something like that upset him. The Hedgehog couldn't escape the collapse, which meant he was free to take over the world whenever he wanted.

Running over to stand next to Sonic, Tails stopped as a sudden sprout of water erupted below the hedgehog, the water carrying him higher up into the air as lights began to flare around it. "Chaos!"

Moving to try and help his hero, Tails gave a loud yelp as he felt a hand clamp onto his shoulder, the force of it making him turned around to see Shadow look at him with a dark expression, Metal-Knuckles remains hanging onto the fake emerald in his hand. "Shadow, you got to help Sonic!"

Titling his head to look up at the water sprout as it began to glow with even more power, Shadow shook his head as he pulled Tails in closer. "Forget it, the faker can handle this himself, Chaos Control!" Once again drawing on the Emeralds power, Shadow focused on the one place he knew to be a safe spot at the moment.

As the black and Red hedgehog warped away, the water sprout pulled in on itself to form a ball of water, four limps forming as a pair of large ice like wings shot out of the back of the sphere, the rest of the water reforming into a dragon like body that hovered in midair, seven different colored sparks coming from inside of its body.

Tuning his head to face to the Jungle, Chaos narrowed his eyes as he spotted several robots running away from the collapsing base. The sight causing the massive water dragon to open his mouth as a beam of green light shot out, it force ripping through the robots and setting part of the jungle on fire.

Inside Chaos's water dragon form, Sonic smirked as he saw Shadow save Tails, the fact that two tailed fox were gone meant he was no longer in danger, and the blue hedgehog could do the one thing he knew was the right to do at the moment.

Closing his eyes, Sonic felt the power of the Chaos Emeralds in the water around him, flowing freely into both him and Chaos in a steady amount, power that could allow him to put an end to this mess once and for all. Opening his eyes again, they had turned completely crimson as his fur began to waved and spark in a golden color, each of them showing the amount of power running through him.

* * *

The master Emerald glowed steadily as the seconds passed, each of them spent the same way as the last one. "So, got any ideas?" Amy finally asked, as she looked up, her eyes a bit bleary from staring right into the glowing gem for a long time without blinking. "Cause all I can think of it getting a few plants and use their life-force to free them, but a plant can't make a wish so I'm kind of stuck."

Turning her head to see Cream napping on the nearby couch, she sighed and moved to cover the young rabbit with a blanket when a faint ringing sound reached her ears. The sound making her turn to face the giant gem stone as it pulsed a bit brighter then before, each time drawing her closer to it. "Now what?"

Looking closer at it, her eyes widen as she spotted a small image forming inside of it, an image of Sonic hovering mid air as his fur became the color of solid gold, glowing regularly from the sheer power inside of him. "Sonic!" Her sudden and loud scream awakening the sleeping Cream who nearly fell of the couch from shock.

As well as cause Rouge to move out of the other room, her eyes half open as she cast an irritated look over at the pink hedgehog. "What are you yelling like that for?" Her voice showing just how tired she was as she slowly began to walk over to stare at the gemstone, trying to find out why Amy hadn't even answered her. "What the?"

"Is that Sonic?" Cream asked as she hovered up over the two of them to see what they were looking her, her eyes wide as she saw the glowing hedgehog hovering in the air, her eyes picking out several streams of water swirling around him. "What's with the water?"

"Sonic was trapped by Chaos." Tails answered as both he and Shadow popped up in the room, both of them looking over at the three girls. "Hey, when did Amy come back?" Tails asking the question as he briefly spotted her still staring into the gemstone. "And where's Knuckles?"

Waving a hand to shut him up, Rouge focused her attention on the master Emerald again. "We'll tell you later okay, right now we got to see this."

* * *

Hovering above the battle ground as the flaming wreckage of the tower collapsed completely, Chaos roared out in joy and triumph as once again the full power of all seven Chaos Emeralds flowed through its body, once again it had the power to seek revenge on everyone who had dared to hurt its off spring

And this time it had succeed, despite the appearance of the black and red hedgehog whose body flowed with the power of its own, it had won, the two tailed fox had disappeared into the realm of chaos with the strange hedgehog, and the creature who had freed it so long ago was soon to be dead.

The Chao killer was gone, his evil no longer destined to foul up the world or endanger anything, all that was left was to destroy the remaining traces of his presence, and the world would be a much better place to live in.

Opening his mouth to spit out another searing hot beam of chaos energy at the burning jungle, Chaos stopped as a shock wave rippled through his body, the origin coming from the blue hedgehog who had been swallowed along with the last Chaos Emerald in order for him to be complete.

Opening his mouth again to eject the hedgehog's body before it did more damage, Chaos opened his eyes wide as the power of the Chaos Emeralds flowed away from him, their power getting drawn into this small creature making it hard to maintain flight, let alone focus on anything else but drawing back on that power.

Opening his eyes, Sonic felt his battered and oxygen deprived body grow warm again as power flowed through him, heedless of the fact that his transformation was turning Chaos Body into a twister of water as each emerald power was seeped away from him, Sonic stood up straight and accepted the change he had grown used to.

And with a final shockwave of power shooting out from him, Sonic ceased to be just a normal hedgehog as his body adapted a shining golden glowing color, his eyes blood red, but still filled with the joy of life and amusement he drew from facing a tough challenge each time he went up against Eggman.

Turning to face the water monster as its body was ripped apart and sent flying away by the last stage of his transformation, Super-Sonic narrowed his eyes as he focused on the space that the water had begun to hover towards. This was going to be the final confrontation between him and that creature if he had anything to say about.

"Chaos." And Super Sonic's words were plainly heard by the massive water dragon as it reformed several feet away from him, dragon like legs glowing with the chaos power he still had left to fight with. This time facing off against the one who had beaten him back in the past, when he had tried to get revenge on the world for nearly killing off his beloved Chao.

Rearing back his head as he gathered up power, Chaos shot it forward and let lose with a beam of pure Chaos Energy, the force of it ripping into the cliff face of the mystic ruins heavily, the rocks and tree getting blow up or torn down in a rock slide.

But the Yellow glowing hedgehog hadn't even been affected by it; it didn't even look like he had been pushed back at all by his attack. Moving forward to try a more direct attack, Chaos snapped open his water jaws, forming several sharp teeth as some of the water was frozen into ice.

Watching as the jaws moved to snap shut around him, Sonic simply lifted out a single hand in front of him, the chaos power inside of hid body flowing into it at his will. As the jaws finally closed in around him and he could feel Chaos's water form try to drain him of his chaos power, Sonic smirked as he let lose the power he had gathered up. "Chaos Control!"

And the world lit up with pure white light as an ever-expanding sphere formed in the air, Chaos barely having time to give a roar of surprise before he was swallowed up by it.

TBC.

AN: One last chapter to go, and the whole thing should be solved. But seriously, I had a lot trouble with this one, the final part of the plot wouldn't look good no matter how often I re-wrote it, but I'm hoping this last one will at least be somewhat decent.

A lot shorter then the last one, but you'll all have to live that.

One last chapter to go folks.


	12. chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.

Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to, warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes and Advance 3 spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.

* * *

A good deed gone wrong  
Part XII

* * *

Floating, that was what it felt it like.

It felt almost like he was drifting through the air as weightless as he felt, but the stuff around him was too warm and heavy to be just some air that he was floating around in, so that left only one option left for it to be, and it was something he had promised himself never to spend more then two minutes in.

Opening his eyes slowly, almost afraid of what he knew he would see when he did so, Sonic still snapped open his mouth to scream as all he saw around him was water. Endless and with no surface it sight. The only reason he could see anything at all was because of the seven gems floating in front of him.

Each one sending out a soft golden glow despite the fact that none of them were even gold like in color. But that fact was lost on Sonic as he began to do what he normally did when faced with a trip into a body of water that he hadn't done willingly, he panicked, clawing and kicking at the transparent substance around him in an effort to escape.

And then opened up to look at him, those deep green eyes that never blinked nor had any pupils. But he could still feel them staring at him. /Why, why you stop me, I was removing bad man, bad man who machines hurt little chao./

Stopping all movement at the sudden intrusion into his head, Sonic watched as the eyes shrunk down to a small size, while part of the water took on the shape and form of Chaos 0, the water monster moving a three fingers hand in front of him.

/Why you attack me, why you hurt me for protecting my treasure chao/ As he was once again hit with a mental question, Sonic felt the water around his head flowed away, forming a large bubble of air for him to breathe in.

Feeling Chaos looking at him as he breathing slowed down from a panic level, Sonic finally found himself able to face Chaos on a more dignified level. "You nearly got me killed, not to mention Eggman and Tails." Spitting out the words, Sonic lifted up a clenched hand to shake it, stopping as it was far to hard to do so without moving his head in the water as well. "It was only because of Shadow that they're still alive."

Not blinking or moving as Sonic spoke, Chaos listen to the words of the blue hedgehog, feeling a bit of surprise at the anger in the hedgehog's words. /You care for them, like I care for Chao? Won't let them be hurt no matter what, will hurt those who hurt?./

Trying to understand Chaos's sentence, Sonic frowned as he got a good idea of what the beast was saying to him. "Yes, Tails is my friend, Eggman's my rival, and I will protect them both if I had too. Well maybe not Eggman, but Tails is a definite yeah."

/You strange, friend Tikal like that, sad I destroy her kind long ago, but they pay for hurting Chao, all who hurt Chao must pay./ Moving closer, Chaos just stared at Sonic without showing any kind of emotion. /Friend Tikal cry sometime from losing friends, I try to make her happy again, but it never work, she always cry again, yet she never blame me for hurting them, never tried hurting back./

Smirking lightly at Chaos words, Sonic had to shake is head. He would have betted that the young Echidna chieftain's daughter would be like that. She had never wanted to them to kill Chaos, only stop him from causing that high a level of destruction again. "Yeah, she's not that bad, but listen, you think you want to call of this hurt Eggman business, he's already beaten and down."

Getting a slightly hesitant look on his face, Sonic stared around him a bit confused. "And while we are talking about Tikal, there's something you should know."

/Friend Tikal missing, pink hedgehog with hammer show up instead./ Chaos replied as he moved even closer to Sonic, almost just outside the bubble of air around Sonic's head. /Pink hedgehog make Tikal vanish by taking her place, worry about friend Tikal, you know where friend Tikal/

"Well, about that." Getting a slightly trouble expression on his face, Sonic wondered how he was going to tell the water monster that Tikal was currently trying to find a way to free Amy without trapping herself again, and how he was going to react to it. "You see, it's kind of like this"

* * *

As usual, no wind moved through the world within the Master Emerald, a fact that had Knuckles slightly on edge since he was used to always having at least a mild breeze push against him. Added in was the lack of sounds beyond the happy squeals of the chao playing with Tikal. 

Facing the Master Emerald's image behind him, Knuckles took a deep breath and began to calm himself down; it wouldn't do to have a nervous breakdown at a time like this. Besides, it wasn't his style, he was the guardian of this giant green gemstone and he didn't have time for any kind of breakdowns.

"Are you okay?" Tikal's voice reached him as she planted a hand on his shoulder, eyes slightly filled with a longing to them. "Trust your friends, they will find a way to help you."

Blushing a bit from the contact of her hand on his shoulder Knuckles barely managed to make out what it was she had said to him. He wasn't used to being this close to a female and hearing her voice and being able to touch the only other Echidna he had ever, wasn't something he had been prepared for.

Opening his mouth to reply in some manner, Knuckles quickly shut it up as he saw the look in her eyes, a bit of despair filling him as he remembered that she was willing to have herself get trapped in the gemstone to save Amy without thinking of how it would have affected anyone else. "I know, but as I said, I won't leave unless you are free along with Amy."

Feeling her heart clench up at the words, Tikal turned her head halfway around to avoid seeing the look in his eyes, it was a look she had only seen once in her life, centuries ago when she had been alive, one she hadn't been able to return to warrior who had looked at her like that. "Please, this is how it has to be, I knew that there would be a price to pay for my wish, you shouldn't suffer because of it."

"I do suffer because of it." Knuckles muttered out as he faced her, eyes half closed as he took a deep breath and sighed loudly. "The fact you were freed by Amy's wish should have told what I think of you, for me to be happy, you were freed from this place." Giving her a rather caring look as he finished the sentence, Knuckles reach out and took one of her hands. "I like you Tikal, as more then just the first Echidna I have met, I like you for who you are, and I don't want to leave you, or have you leave me."

Seeing no reaction from her other then shock at what he had said, Knuckles sighed and turned his head away. "I understand if you don't feel the same way, but no matter what you say or feel, I won't let you remain in this place forever."

Looking a bit out of it after Knuckles confession, Tikal just gaped like a fish until she felt him removed his hands from hers. "Wait, Knuckles you love me?" Blushing heavily as his words ran through her head again, Tikal could only stare as she could barely detect a similar blush on his face.

Opening his to reply to her, knuckles blinked as someone else beat him to it. "Why Knuckles, I didn't think that you would love someone, I thought you were all for your emerald?" Or rather someone spoke to him with a very familiar voice while leaned on his shoulder. "Tikal, nice to see you again as well, so Knuckles, you love her."

Moving his shoulder, Knuckles cast a tired look down at Sonic as he hit the ground face first. "Okay Sonic, how did you get here, and where do you want me to hit the least?" Punching one hand into the other at his words, Knuckles eyes held a promise of violence as he watched the blue hedgehog stand up.

Brushing off some imaginary dust from his shoulder, Sonic pointed a hand over Knuckles shoulder. "He brought me here, after we had a little chat."

Turning to face the direction Sonic had pointed in, Knuckles gave a small yell of surprise as he found Chaos standing right behind him, those green eyes of his looking right into his purple ones. "Chaos, when did he."

"You're back." Tikal spoke out softly as she walked up to stand next to Knuckles, one hand briefly touching his arm to make him relax. "I am sorry for leaving, but I am back now, please free Knuckles and Sonic from this place, please."

Not answering her right away, Chaos shifted a bit to look at Sonic who simply gave a smile and a thumps up in return, then over at Knuckles and finally back to the tired and sad looking Tikal. /Friend Tikal, you wish to leave here, like hedgehog Sonic says/

Looking quickly over at Sonic who simply smiled at her, Tikal turned back to face Chaos, her hand sneaking down to hold Knuckles as she lowered her head a bit. "Yes, I like it here Chaos, but I feel a longing for the real world, I want to live in the world outside, to feel the wind on my face, to see time pass, and to be with someone I love." The last barely heard as she muttered it out under her breath.

Not answering her as she turned to lean on Knuckles, Chaos moved back a bit and turned to face eth Master Emerald Image, his green eyes showing no emotion as he planted both three fingered hands on it. "Friend Tikal look after Chao and Chaos, Chaos thank you."

As he finished talking, Chaos's green eyes gave the impression of closing as a powerful bright light erupted around them, the sheer force of it causing everyone to shield their eyes as they felt the world vanish beneath them.

* * *

Back in the real world, Amy had dropped to her knees, her mind trying to come up with some kind of answer to what she had just seen. It wasn't possible that her hero could have just vanished like that, it wasn't possible at all, but no matter how she put it, she couldn't deny the fact that Sonic had disappeared in that sphere of power. 

Opening her eyes as she struggled to hold back her tears, her mouth spoke the words inside of her mind silently, as if saying them would jinx the blue hedgehog and prevent him from returning, return to her, Tails and all the others, to once again smile that special way that made her feel all mushy on the inside.

Petting the pink hedgehog in a slightly comforting way, Tails kept shooting concerned looks at the Master Emerald, Cream who was hugging Cheese close to her, and everyone else in the room, trying hard not to break down himself. But even as his mind kept trying to say that Sonic was gone for good this time, he couldn't help but feel that the blue hedgehog would once again make it through without any problems.

He was sure of it; the blue hedgehog had been though worse things then that. Escaping the crashing Death Egg as it fell to earth the first time, his battles with Metal-Sonic, Chaos's final form, and getting shot out into space by Eggman, he had survived all of that, so he had to survive this as well.

Giving Amy a well hidden look of concern from his place in the corner, Shadow kept a firm hold on the fake chaos emerald in his hand, not even caring that Metal-Knuckles was no longer connected to it in any way. Clearly the robot had lost the parts needed to hold onto the gem, and had been left behind in the ruined base when it collapsed.

Instead, his mind was focused on what he had seen, the faker, no, Sonic had used Chaos Control in a manner he hadn't seen before, well, Rouge had spoken of it once, telling him he had used to save the Earth along with Sonic when he had prevent the space station Ark from falling. But that matter was beneath him now, so it was ignored, but the look of pain in that young hedgehog's eyes had him momentarily distracted from his previous thoughts, and had him eye her like a protective big brother would a younger sister.

Rouge had moved herself closer to the Master Emerald despite her earlier desire to not have it around anymore. Now that both Knuckles and Sonic was gone, it would need a new guardian, and she was the best one in the room as far as she could see.

All it would take to make sure that Eggman wouldn't get the drop on her again like he just had, was to improve the security of her new nightclub, no robot would be allowed with in a hundred meters of it. Reaching out a hand to touch the gem, she let it fall down to her side and sighed a bit as a well-hidden part of her protested her act of greed in such a moment as this.

Unable to really feel any emotions, Omega kept a watchful eye on the group inside the room, his anger and hate at his creator momentarily fading as he watched the movie file of the golden hedgehog unleashing the chaos power again, the file stopping right as the power fully consumed the golden glowing body.

And from deep with in, a feeling of having seen that golden figure before flowed through him with a strange feeling attached to it as a brief image of a small red bird filled his mind, then it was gone as his robotic mind took over again and had him return his attention to ensure Rouge wasn't hurting herself by standing up, and that no one was going to attack the group.

Just hugging her chao closed, Cream kept rocking back and fourth slowly as she sat on the floor, her mind still trying to figure out why everyone seemed so upset by Sonic's disappearance, hadn't the blue hedgehog survive other fights just a dangerous as this one, of not more.

But even as her mind kept yelling out that the hedgehog was fine, a smaller part of her was feeling the same emotion as the other close friends of Sonic. That maybe this was the final straw in Sonic's reckless life, that he was not going to just walk out of it with a few scratches and joke that it was no big deal to have walked on the edge of life.

As the mood inside the room continued to fall towards depression, barely anyone noticed as the Master Emerald shuddered a bit in its current resting place, It wasn't until it gave another shudder that hit one of Tails machines hard enough to make a sound, did they noticed.

Turning around as one to see what had caused the sound, Amy, Rouge, Omega, Tails, Shadow and Cream stared in wonder as the Master Emerald gave a small shudder once more, its constant glow dimming as if something was struggling to shut it down completely. Then with a final shuddering that almost knocked over the machine part it hit, its light exploded outward, covering everything in a warm blanket of green energy.

As it faded away, the group looked up as one, to see a small group of three familiar furries standing before them, Sonic smirking as he watched the stare at him, Knuckles holding Tikal as she once again had to get used to be alive and outside in the real world.

Staring at the one in the front of the group, the name of him sounded through out the room, as it was halfway yelled out by the ones before him. "Sonic!"

Stepping away from the two echidna's Sonic crossed his arms and grinned a bit. "Hey, what's with the long faces everyone, you know I always come through no matter what the odds are." Taking a deep breath as he finished talking, Sonic mouth slid into a smirk full of confidence.

Staring at her hero, Amy felt a few tears well up in the corner of hers eyes as she saw that he was safe, that he wasn't dead like she had almost begun to believe. "Sonic, you're okay." Then she turned to see Tikal stand up straight as Knuckles pulled his hands away from her shoulders. "You're back, but how?"

Facing the pink hedgehog as he question silenced everyone else, Tikal felt a great deal of sadness well up inside of her, as the last words she had heard just before getting freed again came back to her. "He gave me his life force, Chaos freed me."

"He freed us all." Knuckles added as he watched Amy as well, a look that had the young hedgehog step back a bit as it became clear that he wasn't done with her yet. "I just wonder what he meant when he asked you to take care of him Tikal."

As Knuckles finished speaking, the sound of something rolling over on the surface of the Master Emerald gad him turned around to see a chao egg roll around a bit. "What the?" Moving to pick it up, he was beaten to it by Tikal who lifted it down with as much care as she could. "Tikal"

Holding the egg careful, Tikal ran a finger down over the sea blue shell and sighed as a few tears left her eyes. "He's here, he's become a normal chao again." Looking at the gem before her, Tikal shook her head a bit. "All of it that he used to free us is now locked within this gem, and the small amount he had left allowed him to become one of the chao he guarded."

Holding the egg closer to her, Tikal smiled a bit as she turned to face Knuckles again. "I'll keep my promise to him, I'll protect him until he is able do so on his own again."

Nodding a bit, Knuckles reached out a hand and touched the Master Emerald, the large gem shrinking down to hand size again as he willed it. "Where will you go now Tikal, I have to return to Angel Island and resume my guardian ship, but I understand if you would rather stay down here on the surface."

Looking up into the slightly taller Echidna's face, Tikal gave a small smile at him as she moved the egg to a better position. "I'll go with you Knuckles, I would like to get to know you a bit better, so, if you don't mind me tacking along?"

Blushing a bit at the sincere look in those eyes of hers, Knuckles turned to see the rest of the room looking at him with small smirks or smiles. "Oh shut up." Wandering off, he looked over Tikal as she blinked her eyes in confusion. "I'll be waiting for you outside Tikal, so when you're ready, we can leave for Angel Island." The last added as his gaze slid over to land on Tails.

Blinking a bit as well, the two tailed fox jumped up as he remembered that he had the only plane that could get the two echidnas to the island. "Um, I'll go and warm up the Tornado." Walking out, he looked back one more time and smiled as he saw Tikal walk over towards Knuckles. "At least he won't be so lonely on that island anymore."

Pushing off from the wall he had been leaning on while the two lovebirds had talked, Shadow cast a bored look over at Sonic. "Hey faker, its been an interesting day, but I'll take my leave now." Turning to face Rouge and Omega, Shadow raised an eyebrow a bit as he saw the bat leaning on the robot with a tired expression. "You two coming or what?"

Lifting up Rouge, Omega nodded at his silently and most brooding partner. "Affirmative Shadow, ready to return home." as he finished talking, he took a step forward only to get hit in the head by one of rouges boots. "What's wrong Rouge? Am I holding you to hard?"

"Idiots, the night clubs a wreck, where do you two think we're going to stay now huh?" Her voice a bit tired sounding as she glared at them both, embarrassed over getting treated like a young girl by the robot.

Lifting up his hand and allowing a set of keys to glint in the light, Shadow smirked a bit at her. "I borrowed the fox's keys to his lab inside the city, we can stay there until the clubs been fixed." His words reaching Tails who opened his mouth to protest, only to close it when those crimson eyes reached him. "I'll return the keys when the reconstruction is done."

Walking out of the room, Shadow failed to see Tails ears drop down a bit as it mean the young fox was now reduced to sleeping in the spare bed he had in the workshop. "So much for a relaxing night." Picking up the keys for the Tornado, Tails stopped t look over at the others in the room, his eyes stopping as they reached the young rabbit and her chao. "Cream, you want a lift back to your mother's house, it's only a small detour."

Nodding vigorously at the fox, the young rabbit jumped up and pulled her pet chao in close to her, stopping just before Tails as she gave a small bow. "Thank you very much, but are you sure that there will be enough space in your plane for us all?"

Grinning as he walked towards the backroom, Tails smirked a bit as he rubbed a finger under his nose. "Yup, I've been working on a add on for the plane, so now it can handle up to five passengers at once." The fox not seeing the look of concern filling Cream's face at getting to be the one to test out one of his new machines.

Left behind in the room, Sonic smiled a bit at Amy as he stretched his arms up over his head. "Well, I beat, think I'll head back to Station Square and check in at a hotel." Looking over at Amy, he held out a hand towards her. "Want a life to your apartment?"

Feeling her face nearly split from the size of her smile, Amy began to nod when Tikal's voice broke through the haze of happiness surrounding her. "But Sonic, I thought her apartment had been destroyed by Eggman?"

Eyes narrowed as her happiness shattered to be replaced by shock and anger, Amy cast a dark look over at Sonic as her left hand pulled out her trusted Piko Piko hammer. "You let Eggman destroy my apartment!" Her voice hitting a rather high note as her hammer was pulled back to lash out at him.

Holding up his hands, Sonic backed a way a bit. "Well, we did need a place to stay, and Eggman must have seen us enter it somehow, so when he tried to take Tails prisoner he kind of blow up the wall and burnt out the inside of it."

"He what!" Amy roared out as her eyes flashed with rage. "And you let him? You idiots, I don't have the damage from an Eggman attack insurance policy! Morons!"

Moving rapidly towards the door, Sonic gave a small grin at her. "You know, I wasn't there at the time, but Tails was, so if you want to blame someone, blame him." Bolting out the door before Amy could reply or yell again, Sonic was off running as fast as she could.

Leaning on the side of the small workshop, Knuckles cast a surprised look at Sonic, and then slid it to the side as he saw Amy stomp out through the door, her hands holding her hammer rather tightly. "Let me guess, he's running away from you again?" His voice neutral as he was staring to think they would never change no matter how much advice they got.

"The coward." Amy grunted out as she sent her hammer back to where it came from. "Now what do I do, my apartment's wracked, all my stuff is gone."

Cringing a bit at her words, Knuckles quickly moved a bit away from her, as it most likely wasn't a good idea to let her know that he could have stopped Eggman's attack, if he had stayed behind instead of following Sonic. "Well, don't you have a place you can stay at until it is repaired?"

Sighing a bit, Amy looked back into the workshop, her eyes half closed in anger still. "Hey Tails, I'm going to have to spend the night here, and don't protest, it's thanks to you and Eggman my homes been trashed." The faint sound of Tails moaning either in defeat, protest or sadness followed Amy's statement as she walked in. "I heard that you know, and how hard can it be for a genius like you to make a guest bed anyway?"

Walking out of the place, Tikal cast a look back in as she heard Tails and Amy argue over who was going to sleep in the guest bed as Cream giggled in the background. "They're rather lively aren't they?" Smiling a bit as she spoke, Tikal turned to face Knuckles. "I should thank Amy, if it wasn't for her wish, I wouldn't be free again."

Rising an eyebrow again, Knuckles looked over at the door as Tails walked out from the inside. "Better do it now, as we'll be leaving shortly."

Walking out as well, Cream giggled a bit as she petted Tails on the back in a comforting way. "Don't worry, my mom has a guest you can borrow, it's not that hard to move either so you shouldn't have any problems with it." Giggling a bit as the fox moaned in defeat again, she looked up at Knuckles who simply nodded back at her as they passed.

Inside the room, Tikal looked over at Amy as the young Hedgehog dropped into a chair and sighed as leaned back in it with a content smile on her face. "Amy?"

Looking up at her name, Amy smiled a bit as she saw who it was. "Tikal, so, are you and Knuckles going to be together now that you're out of the gem for good?"

Giggling a bit at the pink hedgehog's blunt approach, Tikal blushed a bit as she thought about it. "Well, he's not bad on the eyes, plus he so sweet once you get past the tough exterior." Looking over at Amy, her eyes turned a bit determined as she saw Amy grin back at her. "And I hope you remember what I told, Sonic might not want someone to follow him, but he might want to have someone run with him."

"I remember." Amy replied as she still grinned a bit at Tikal. "So I'm giving him a bit of breathing space from now on, it might also give me some time to think of a good way to approach him without having him run off." Her eyes closing a bit as a small daydream started up, she grinned a bit as it began to overpower reality around her.

Moving the chao egg a bit to a better position again, Tikal smiled a bit again as she gave a small bow. "Anyway, I wanted to thank you Amy, for getting it all started so I could be free again." Standing up from her bow, she saw Amy nod at her as she blushed from embarrassment. "Well, I had better get going, if we have to reach Angel Island before nightfall."

As she turned, she heard Amy move a bit behind her, the young hedgehog walking over to the door with her. "Take care of yourself Tikal, and Chaos, and Knuckles too." Waving at the red colored guardian, she received a small look in return. "I guess he's still a bit upset that I messed with his emerald."

Laughing a bit at Amy's comment, Tikal wiped away a tear. "You know he's just to too shy to thank you for this, it's his nature." Waving back at Amy as she walked off, Tikal handed the Chao egg over to Cream as she felt Knuckles help her up into the back seat of the Tornado. "Be seeing you Amy, drop by the island if you have the time."

"And the means." Amy mumbled out as the plane began to take off, her eyes following it until it was just a spec in the distance before heading back inside. "Great, now I'm alone again, and Sonic's gone for now, but at least I can think of a way to get him to like me." Dropping back down into the chair, Amy sighed a bit in happiness as she enjoyed the softness of it. "Now, how do I convince Sonic to let me run with him, instead of following him"

* * *

Grumbling as he sat silently in his back up lab, Eggman still had a frown on his face as he turned to view the computer screen before him with a critical eye. "Memory programming, 67 complete." Smirking widely at the news, Eggman stood up and did a light stretch as he turned away from the screen. "I may have the lost a base, the Master Emerald and a battle mecha." 

Walking towards a lone chamber in the middle of the room, Eggman grinned as he planted a hand on the glass and metal tube there. "But it matters not, the status of your progress more then makes up for those losses, and while I would have liked it to be more, it is good enough for now."

Turning around to leave, Eggman cast a last look over his shoulder. "Rest well my creation, for when the times come, you shall destroy Sonic, and all who stand against me." Laughing as he left the room, Eggman didn't notice the red glowing eyes coming from the inside of the tube.

As the door closed, a single metallic hand pressed against the window glass and pushed gently on it. "Soniiicccc." The name drawn out as the hand clenched up into a fist as the pair of red eyes glowed even brighter from inside the tank. "Destroy."

* * *

Standing on the edge of Angel Island's new emerald shine as the island rose up into the sky , Knuckles cast a look back at Tikal as she smiled at him. "So, you ready to head over to your new home?" His voice a it unsure sounding as he walked closer to her. 

Nodding at him, Tikal took his hand and smiled a bit as she broke out into a blush. "Lead the way Knuckles, and don't worry, I won't mess up your place that much."

Grinning a bit in embarrassment from her comment, Knuckles wondered how she would react to his home, not that it was that much of a place to stay to begin with, it only had one sleeping place, a table and a old log to sit on. Almost all of his time was spent at the Master Emerald anyway and.

Blushing even harder, Knuckles felt his blood pressure rise a bit as he remembered that there was only one bed at his home, then he forced it down and felt a bit more relaxed as he considered if he should sleep sitting on the log, or settled for making a makeshift bed of leave and sand.

Next to him, Tikal still grinned as she had seen the brief look passing through his eyes, but didn't decided to play on it as it was getting rather late, and she was looking forward to some sleep. Maybe she could convince him to help her look for the materials needed to make an extra bed tomorrow.

* * *

"And Tikal's free and living with knuckles right now." Cream told her mother as they walked along the beach, her eyes shining a bit with happiness for her friends before stopped as she noticed something up ahead of them, something familiar that she hadn't expected to see again. "Emerl!" 

Running forward, she stopped as she noticed it to be a gold and black colored robot and not the familiar robot she had met so long ago. "No, it's not him, I think its Gmerl." Cream exclaimed as her mother simply stared down at the robot lying on the beach before them.

She didn't hear her daughter talk about bringing him back to life, all she saw was a robot that had been built by Eggman to hurt her daughter and her friends. "Cream, are you sure that's a good idea?"

Twirling around to face her mother, Cream giggled a bit as she placed her hands on her back. "Don't worry, I'm sure Tails can make him become a good robot, please."

Feeling her resolved fail before her daughters pleading expression, Vanilla finally shook her head. "Okay, but make sure that Tails does a good work okay, I don't want it to hurt you."

Jumping up in joy at her mother's words, Cream barely avoiding hitting Cheese as he moved in to get a better look. "Thank you mommy."

The end.

AN: First, the last part led the story into the Sonic Advance 3 ending, so I hope I haven't spoiled it for anyone. Second, this is the final chapter, and the one where all things got cleared up, I hope everyone like the way I got those trapped in the Master Emerald freed again, and aren't mad at what happened to Chaos.

Originally I intended to go with the idea of using plants to free them after a friend suggested it to me in an e-mail, then I changed my mind and decided to have Chaos do it instead. And for the curious ones, I had envision an idea of Knuckles and Tikal having to take up residence in the Mystic ruins area in the end as well, following the sinking of Angel Island as it had landed in too deep a part of the ocean for it to reach the bottom safely.

Also, feel free to tell how you thought of the whole story, what was good, what was bad, and where it could have had some improvements, or a lot, remember, the more reviews I get, the happier I am.

Signing out for now,  
Demino.


End file.
